Stories from the Mountains

Flying to altitude can trigger altitude sickness but does flying away from it, by rescue helicopter, make things worse? Here's what actually happens, physiologically and operationally, during a Nepal high-altitude evacuation.

Nepal is still open. Two floods have hit two corners of the country in the last three weeks but most of it, including Everest, Annapurna and Kanchenjunga, hasn't missed a beat. The real question isn't "is Nepal safe?" It's whether your route is one of the two that changed. Here's exactly where things stand.

When the Bagmati River rose through Kathmandu this monsoon, it turned from a quiet city river into a roaring, sediment-brown torrent within hours, a reminder of how fast conditions can change in Nepal's mountains. Flash floods and landslides aren't rare here; they're a recurring feature of the monsoon, when narrow valleys and steep terrain turn heavy rainfall into fast-moving hazard. This guide covers why it happens, when risk rises, and exactly what to do before and during route disruption.

You're 3 days from the nearest road, at 4,500m, and your friend just stopped making sense. No signal. No road. No ambulance coming.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: "just call a helicopter" isn't how it works and it's not guaranteed to save you. This is what actually happens when a Nepal trek goes wrong.

"Travel insurance" isn't one thing. At 5,000 metres, that distinction can matter more than almost anything else in your pack. Whether altitude sickness is covered comes down to your policy's insured altitude, its trekking terms, and its specific AMS provisions, not the label on the cover page. Here's exactly what to check before you commit.