Everest Base Camp

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After acclimatising in Tibet for 8 days on altitudes between 3,500m and 5,000m we move on to Rongbuk, the highest monastery in the world at 5,000m. Just next to it is the last guesthouse before Everest base camp.
Facilities are very basic here. Only one room is heated. That's where everybody hangs out over tea, a plate of fried rice or pot noodles. You can meet serious mountaineers and climbers, sherpas and walkers heading for base camp here. Sometimes you can't tell who is who - a group of well equipped climbers comes in and is greeted with an applause from their friends. You don't know if they have been quite a way up on Everest or just for a walk around the block.
The toilets are quite breezy and dark - just two holes in the ground with no door. The door is not so much needed for privacy but to shelter from the cold wind. The rooms are not heated and temperatures at night drop to 0C to -5C. Many covers are provided and you need a very good sleeping bag. To make up for all this discomfort I have a spectacular view on Everest from my bed.
Already spoilt by brisk and clear views from all the view points on our trip so far, sunset and sunrise are beautiful again. For the ascent on the following day we are lucky as well.
Both Rongbuk and Everest base camp can be reached by car or bike but we walk from Rongbuk to Base camp. A road winds 8km through a gravel desert to climb to Base camp at 5,200m. It's not technically difficult, you just need to cope with the altitude and take it easy.
Originally we planned to sleep in tents at Base camp but they had been brought down just a week before we arrived. Base camp itself is a highland desert plain with memorials for the people who died on the mountain.
I was most touched by the story of Marco Siffredi, a young snowboarder from Chamonix. In 2001 he was one of the first to snowboard down Everest (yes, from the top!). A year later he attempted another route and disappeared in the snow masses never to be seen again. Have a look at the following article in the National Geographic:

Snowboarding Everest

It was amazing to come so close to the highest mountain in the world but I didn't get the urge to climb to the top one day. Even a sherpa I met has been guiding tours in the area up to 6,500m for many years and he doesn't have ambitions to go to the summit....

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Photos

Rongbuk Stupa
The spire of this Stupa is nearly in line with Mount Everest

Getting higher
Pete and I climbed a gravely mountain just next to Rongbuk monastery to get a different angle on Everest

Everest sunset...
We had brilliant and clear views from our guesthouse on Everest. With a little help of the zoom of course...

Everest sunrise
You just can't stop taking pictures of this...even if your fingers freeze to the camera

Everest Base Camp
No, this is not at 8844,43m only at 5,200m

Looking back...
...from base camp. This is a high altitude dessert plain.

Everybody made it to Base Camp!
...but some took the car back

Snow storm on Everest gradient
It's better to watch this from below