Fulfilling a life dream at Mount Everest

It is hard for me to even begin to explain how exited I was for today. One of my three life goals was to hike to base camp at Mount Everest and it was going to come true within hours. those of you who know me will know that I have lost over 65 kgs over the last seven or eight years and the driving force behind this was that I knew that a guy who weighs 150kg just cannot hike at that altitude. So hopefully this sets the background as to what was going through my head.

We awoke well before sunrise, at 7am (China has only one time zone and since we are so far west, the sun doesnt rise until about 8.15am and sets around 8.45 or so) and piled into the bus. The power for the whole town of Sakya is pretty much turned off at night and so the only light came from the headlights of the bus. This meant that the Milky Way brilliant above us. Not long after departing, the first tinges of color hit the horizon and the really cool bit was the sun was going to rise right below the thin sliver of the moon, and directly above that was Venus, shining brightly. If that is not an omen for the heavens for the start of a great day, then I do not know what is.

As we were driving out of town, passing the boarders out for early morning exercise, the peasants(forgive me for that term, but is seems appropriate) were already in the fields, scythes in hand, mowing down barley and taking advantage of the cool of the pre-dawn hours.

It took about three hours to reach the turn off to the Qomolangma (as the locals call Everest) National Park and Sarah and I were bouncing in our seats the whole time. It seemed that almost everyone else was getting a little additional sleep but not the two of us. Sarah is a real mountain girl and it is really great to have her here with me, as we are both so excited. We kept turning to each other and saying stuff like "Can you believe we are about to see Mount Everest?" or stuff like that. There was even a high five exchanged.

Cruising along the road, with most people still dozing andnot paying attention, we came around a bend, and there in front of us was The Mountain, dislayed through a pass in the foothills in front of us. I didn't know for a act at that point that it was Everest, but I think that deep in my soul I knew instantly, as, a second after seeing it I uttered "That is a really big hill". Master of Understatement that I am. Pulling over a few minutes later I took my first photo of it and just stood and stared. We had gotten lucky and there was almost no clous and the view was magnificent.

Continuing on for another hour or so, Everest having once again disappeared behind the foothills (which were over 6000 meters) we arrived that the National Park. The road through to base camp is about 100km long and is an unsealed, dirt road. It is in not too bad condition, all things considered, and thank god does not have that ripple effect that you get in Australia so often. It is not, however, a road designed for busses, as we rattled along. I have to give huge credit to our driver, as it was a really tough road and he got us through it as quickly and as comfortably as is humanly possible (even though we broke a rear spring at some point). For the group on motorbikes that we keep running into the dusty, gravel roads must be a nightmare. For the group of 20 people on mountain bikes, it has to be hell on Earth.

Not only is the road dirt, but it is a mass of switchbacks that was tiring to sit through, so I can only imagine how tough it is to drive. The pictures below do not do justice to the windiness of the road. I would guess then even though the road is 100km long, as the crow flies, base camp would not be 20km from the turnoff. As we steadily climbed to the Simila Pass, which at 5220 meters is slightly higher than the 5200 meters at base camp (though not the highest I would go, more on that later). Because of the switchbacks, we could see the pass slowly approaching and my sense of anticipation grew and I couldn't help but tap Sarah on the shoulder and say "This is going to be good" and she just smiled in response.

Finally arriving at the Pass, and driving under the mass of prayer flags, we turned the corner and a sight that I will remember to my dying day was arrayed in front of me: the Himalayas in all their glory. There are just 14 mountains in the world that stand above 8000 meters and at that moment I could see five of them, arranged from left to right Mt Makalu (8463m), Mt Lhotse (8516), Mt Everest (8844.43, cos you dont want to miss that last centimeter), My Cho Oyu (8201m) and Mt XiXaBangMa (8012m). There was even one mountain (since it is not above 8000m, it doesnt rank a mention in the book) that is a perfect pyramid shape and framed exactly by a break in the few clouds that were there. It was funny that most of us were slient for a while, there are just times when words are just not enough.

Descending from the Pass into a valley along the twisting road, I felt like my head was on a swivel, as I looked first out one side of the bus, then the other, at the towering peaks, as they slowly disappeared behing yet another set of foothills. As we dropped a good 1500 meters to the valley floor, I couldn't help but think how inhopsitable place this is. At the higher elevations there was basically no vegetation beyond lichens and the occasional stunted tuft of grass, that never grew above four inches off the ground. Even in the valley floor, with a fairly wide reven running through it, there was almost no wild plants, the only growing things were the barley and other crops grown by the few locals that are as tough as the landscape. I grew up in the desert, so I know arid conditions, but I have never seen a place that the banks of a flowing river have next to no vegetation. The Australian Outback, the American West and the Gobi Desert that we had passed through a couple of weeks prior looked flush compared to this. The only place that I have ever seen that, for vast areas, is as arid as this is the Sahara.

Climbing once again back to about 5000m and base camp, we were all getting anxious to jsut arrive and get really close to the mountain, when suddently it was there, dominating the horizon above the road. We all wanted to stop immediately for photos, but we were asssured that it was even better two minutes further on, so I waited, almost bouncing up and down on my seat. Now, I have no idea how Tsoka and Dawa managed to pull this iff, but 10 seconds after stopping and getting out for photos, a herd of four yak walked right over the horizon. None of us had gotten a decent photo of a yak all trip, and now we were going to get one with Mount Everest in the background. this started my quest to get photos of things with Everest in the background which ended with yaks, monks, wild antelope / deer, Sarah, prayer flags and me. The yaks then calmly ambled towards us, sa if posing for the perfect photo.

Arriving at Rombuk, just 7km short of base camp, we dumped our bags in the guesthouse and took off up the mountain (to my significant disappointment, we didnt stay at the monastery itself, which I thought we were going to). Simon and I took off on the 3km walk to tent city, which has a bunch of vendors and the highest post office in the world, while the rest took a bus up. We were walking so quickly that we were almost at a run, but the funny thing was that neither of us felt the altitude, and in fact felt great the whole way and were hardly out of breath. About half way there was a broken down truck on the side of the road and a bunch of monks (wearing North Face jackets in the orange color of Buddhist monk robes) were trying to push it, so we stopped to lend a hand. That was by far the hardest part of the whole day, trying to jump start a huge truck. Or at least that is what we thought that we were trying to do, but just as we got the truck moving about three feet, the driver jammed on the brakes. There was a bunch of talking and once again the monks and us put our backs into moving the truck. Just as we started, our driver and Dawa appeared and started pushing too. Where the hell did they come from? Moving the truck yet another five feet to the side of the road, the brakes were once again jammed on. It turns out that we were moving the truck so our bus could get by. And none of the other guys got out to help!

Continuing with our cracking pace, we got to the tent city not too long after the others, and caught them not much later. It actually turns out that you can take a government bus the whole way to base camp, which Nancy (surprise), Carmen, Chris and Maureen did, while the rest of us walked the remaining 4 kms. The road got kind of windy, so Michael and I decided to take a couple of shortcuts. For the first few, it was pbvious where we were meant to go, but the last one we followed some cairns and a somewhat well worn track straight up, while the road bent 90 degrees to the right. figuring it was a good shortcut, we kept going up the hill and out of sight of everyone else. This was what I was really looking for! It really felt like I was trekking in the wilderness and just over the first rise we saw a herd of four wild antelope. This was amazing! The first wildlife I see on my trip and they are silhouetted by Mount Everest. Continuing up, we saw a larger herd and they let us get quite close while they grazed on what appeared to be rocks and lichen (though there was the occasional tuft of grass and yellow or purple flower).

Coming to the top of the hill, we realized that we had gotten somewhat lost and were, in fact, overlooking Base Camp and a good 50 meters above it. So now I can claim that I have hiked to higher than Base Camp in Everest, at probably 5250 to 5300 meters. The view was also amazing, showing more of the surrounding mountains than we would see from below. Sweet! The only problem was that we had to get down to Base Camp without being shot by Chinese soldiers (there is a police station there). Not only that, the hill was a good 60 degree downslope, covered in scree. So basically I sat on my butt, used my feet as skis and slid most of the way down. It was such a rush and as much fun as I have had in a long time. Finally at the bottom, with torn up palms (but surprisingly, no holes in my shorts) we wandered up to the small overlook and admired the view.

The rest of the group (except the bus riders, who had already gone down) were sitting there and group and indvisual photos were taken. The weather was just perfect, at probably 15 degrees, though with a 30 knot plus wind and not a cloud in the sky. I am not sure what we had done to deserve this, or who made what sacrifices to the weather gods, but it was absolutely perfect. Even in just shorts and my McLovin t-shirt I wasnt cod (though everyone else thought that I was crazy).

While you can drive the whole way to Base Camp takes something away, my off roading and then the magnificent view made the whole experience just stunning and I am not ashamed to admit that there was a little moisture in my eye and I simply sat and took the whole thing in. I cracked open the Lhasa beer that I had carried up and enjoyed a drink and sat quitely and stared. I popped in my mp3 player and turned on Pink Floyd's Learning to Fly (to portend my next life goal or seeing the curvature of the Earth from space) and then, as I started walking down, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird, with the opening lines that perfectly summed up my feelings of leaving Mount Everest:

If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?
For I must be travelling on now, cos there are so many places I've got to see.
If I stay here with you girl, things just couldn't be the same.

Walking back as a group, we took yet another shortcut, but this time did not get lost and saw no wildlife. The walk back was pleasant, though the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees Celsius as soon as the sun dropped below the horizon and even I had to pop on a jumper as the wind chill factor dropped well below freezing. The altitude was also getting to a few people and so Sarah and Jacqui took hits off the small oxygen bottles that they were carrying.

Arriving back at the tent city, I discovered that the post office tent had closed and so I wasn't able to hand in the postcards that I had written. I decided to leave them under a rock right outside the tent, in the hope that the Postie will pick them up in the morning. I really hope that they get where they are going, and was willing to take the risk to say that they were sent from the highest post office in the world. Given the temperature was dropping like a stone and Everest was at our backs, we all decided to take the bus back down to our rooms (which were nothing but four beds in a concrete cell).

To finish off my view of the mountain for the day, the sunset turned the ice a brilliant golden-orange, and though I only got the one good photo, it will remain in my mind forever. For dinner I had a great yak noodle soup, and about four Lhasa beers to celebrate a great day. Drinking the four beers meant that I had to go to the loo in the middle of the night and arrayed above me were the stars in all their glory, with not a light in within probably a hundred kilometers. Only in the Sahara in Morocco have I seen the night sky any clearer, and that was only by a fraction. The day had started with a magical display in the heavens and ended in the same way, and the hours in between were just as amazing and I went to sleep with a massive smile on my face.

I didnt wake up with the same smile. Normally drinking for or five beers wouldnt be a problem, but the combination of how quickly you dehydrate at altitude and the dehydrating effects of alcohol, meant that I woke up with the worst hangover of my life. I could hardly move. Rolling over in bed and seeing Moutn Everest silhouetted against the pre-dawn sky did help, but not a lot. Oddly enough, after quickly throwing up behind the toilet block, I felt 100%. The worst hongover of my life was also the shortest.

Back on the bus, we retraced our winding drive of the previous day and many of us slept for the first couple of hours. Back at Simila Pass, the clouds had close in over the mountains and we only stopped for a few minutes to stretch our legs. How lucky we had been the day before.

The end of our tibetian adventure was close at hand, as we headed to the Nepali border, but this magic land had a few more surprises in store for us. Firstly we drove right by Mt Cho Oyu and, then Mt XiXaBangMa, both standing above 8000 meters and the two that we had the worst view of the day before. Now they loomed large on the horizon, almost deviod of cloud cover.

As if this wasn't enough, like a Hollywood director that saves the best special effects for the final scene, we crossed Nilan Pass, and for the last time at 5000 meters, the Himalayas between Mt Cho Oyu and Mt XiXaBangMa were right there in front of us, seemingly close enough to reach out and touch. Just like in the Hollywood blockbuster where the final fight scene is never actually the final scene (there has to be cheesy dialogue / resolution of the love interest / some dumb philosophical comment) this wasn't the end of our time in Tibet (we were to cross the border the next morning) but in my mind, our time in tebet was done here. We quickly dropped from 5000m to under 2500m, as we went through the Himalayas and into tropical jungle. But that is a story for another day. I portend the sequal here, but that is it.

I will, however, mention here my closing thoughts on Tibet. As I hope that I have brought through in the last few blogs, it is a great place and I have had a wonderful time. The people are warm and friendly and the scenery amazing. But I dont think that I will ever come back. The views of the mountains were perfect and my wonder at seeing them for the first time will never be matched. The people are great, but over time, with the Sinozation / Hanization (are they words? I hope you know what I mean) of Tibet, the culture will be watered down and the place will become more of a tourist trap and overall, less special. This was also the almost unanimous view of the people on the tour. But I will go home with great memories and photos of Tibet, and once again having been pleasantly surprised by what is there.

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Part of trip: The Big One

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