There was a joyous arrival today at the Ottawa airport.  Most of the members of the dream team trekking to Everest base camp are among the first to leave the quake zone.

Looking tired and a little shell-shocked, 17 of the group's members arrived at the Ottawa airport today.

Their trip to Nepal was to be life-changing; nothing prepared them for this. 

After days with no sleep, a 30 hour flight -- and a terrifying ordeal behind her, Leanne Cusack's first thoughts are for the people she left behind.

‘These people are already vulnerable, the infrastructure is already precarious and then this,’ said an emotional Leanne Cusack with CTV News at Noon.

  Leanne arrived back home today, along with 16 other members of the Everest Trek Dream Team.  The charity fundraising team was in Kathmandu, preparing to hike to Everest Base Camp when the earthquake hit. 

‘It was just like a cradle rocking us and then we were told to expect another one and it was really, really bad.’

‘That was terrifying,’ says fellow team member Terri Hoddinott, ‘that experience was terrifying.  I can still feel the ground shaking all the time.’

Team member Katrina Kuras says moments before the earthquake hit, she and another trekker were on a roof top taking photos.

‘I said Tamara, I don't feel safe up here, let's go get a coffee in this little garden and as soon as we got in there to order a coffee, the earthquake hits.  So we couldn't be more lucky to be off the rooftop and in that garden.’

‘The moment I realized what was happening,’ says Dream Team member Matt Carson, ‘was when I saw buildings collapse around us.  It was pretty awful.’

  The team members scrambled yesterday to find their own flight out.  The Dream Team's leader, Shawn Dawson is still in Kathmandu with Ottawa resident Faye Kennedy who was injured during the quake.

Though the Dream Team is back on stable ground, their thoughts are with the people of Nepal.  They're already planning fundraisers.

‘There’s lots we can do,’ says Tim Ross, ‘so I would encourage everyone to go to the Dream Mountain site and make a donation there and do what they can.’

Yes, some are even planning their next trip back to Nepal.

‘I’m going back, if not next year, I will go back with the dream team in 2018,’