Climbing Everest!!

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Well, OK, so I only walked up to base camp but it was the longest 8+km that I've ever done!!! I'd been struggling to walk up stairs in Lhasa, which is only at 3700m - base camp is slightly higher at 5200m. The increase in elevation over the 8km wasn't too great, that said it did all happen at the end... but that combined with the altitude meant I was almost crawling along by the time I got to base camp! For the last few days our jeep had being buddying along with another one - we were following the same route and the drivers new each other well so us passengers all got to know each other too. Me and a couple of the others had talked about the horse and cart option - for 60yuan (4GBP) you can save the pain and go up to base camp with ease. But once there we made a group decision.... horse and cart was tooo easy!!! The plan was to try and walk it and if it got too much we'd try and hail a passing cart! The fact that we were a) going to walk and b) planing on staying at base camp gave our drivers a nervous breakdown! Bless them, one of the guys in the group spoke Chinese and was made to translate their lecture about if we felt ill at all etc etc...... They looked quite concerned as we waved goodbye and set off on the path up.

It ended up taking me 2.5 hours..... one of the guys sped up in 1.5hrs but with a view of Everest nearly all the way I didn't see the point in hurrying... plus there was no chance my body was going to let me!! We were really lucky with the weather and had two quite clear days... apparently some people stay for days waiting for the cloud lift. The only sight moan might be that on the day we walked up we were going into a full on head wind..... by the time we reached the top it felt like I'd spent a few hours spinning in a washing machine! The advantage of having some guys zoom ahead was that by the time we got to base camp they'd already sorted the accommodation situation for us! Like Nam-tso its another tent hotel place.. although these ones weren't quite so posh. The tents were larger and had sofa's that doubled up as beds around the edge and of course there was the usual toilet situation... find a suitable rock outside ;0)

After an hour or so of finishing the hike up I wasn't feeling so great... headaches, nausea and a loss of appetite... all symptoms of altitude sickness. Ahh. I wasn't alone though... to various degrees everyone was feeling bad. As it got later it began to get noticeably colder and we kept warm with an endless number of blankets and duvets, plus I had my 3 season sleeping bag with me - having lugged it round Asia for the last 3 months I HAD to use it here!! There was also a stove.... great for heat and hot tea. For the few weeks I'd been in Tibet I'd seen Yak poo patties being put out to dry in the sun... usually on the walls or roofs of houses. Probably the altitude getting to my brain but I'd spent a while wondering why? I suppose the almost complete lack of tree's should have been a bit of a clue.... with no wood to burn what else do you use for fuel?? And I have to say that yak poo makes a great fire... it kept us warm anyway! A sprig of juniper thrown in helps keep away any nasty whiffs ;0) At one point the supply started to run low, which of course started the conversation of which one of us was going out to collect some more! Fortunately the girl running this particular tent hotel turned up with another bag of it! I pretty much stayed on my bed all evening feeling yuck... but I did manage to venture out for sunset. And it was pretty spectacular - not over the mountain itself but with the clear sky and altitude the colours were so vivid.

Day 4

The next day I felt better and got up for sunrise. It was sooo cold out at that time that everyone else stayed in bed and I had to take 2 blankets out with me to stay warm. There were none of the bright reds of the night before, instead I saw first light gradually hit the top of the mountain and reflect off the snow capped peak. I've had numerous 'best experience' moments on this trip.. but I think being up to watch sunrise over Everest ranks pretty highly ;0). At 8am I started the walk back down - being early it was obviously much colder than walking up yesterday but the scenery was maybe more beautiful - there was a real freshness to the air, absolute silence (it was too early for the horse and carts) and a surreal blue haze that surrounded the mountain and landscape around me.

The plan for the day had been a short drive (maybe 3hours) to a town called Shegar where we would overnight. We opted to change the plan and push through to Shigatse instead, meaning that tomorrow we'd have a driving free day!! Yeayy!!! The downside of course meant that today was a 10 hour epic. With only the briefest of stops for lunch, and then again when the other car had a wee breakdown, we pushed on all the way through.... and celebrated by staying up to some wee hour with beers and football!

Day 5

Shigatse is home to the Tashilhunpo Monastery, one of the big monasteries of the Gelugpa (or Yellow Hat) sect in Tibet. Founded by the First Dalai Lama in 1447, it was expanded by the 4th and later Panchen Lamas. The charge for photography in the main chapels was extortionate... some 80yuan plus for each chapel, so I opted not to pay and took far too many photo's of the outside instead. The temples were amazing though and included the Maitreya Chapel, which houses a 26m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha. Decorated with gold, copper, pearl, amber, coral, diamond and other precious stones the statue took 9 years to build. A nearby building houses the the stupa tomb of the 10th Panchen Lama. Built in 1993 it is covered in 614 kg of gold, 868 precious stones and 246,794 jewels. I found out from a friendly monk who spoke amazing english and took it upon himself to give me a wee guided tour and history lesson, that the 10th Pachen Lama was responsible for building the stupa here that contains the remains of the 5th-9th Pachen Lama's. Originally they had seperate stupa tombs, but these were destroyed during the cultural revolution.

Day 6

Today was a short day as far as the tour went - the only thing left to do was drive back to Lhasa, just 4 mere hours away. And on a tarmac road at that!! Too easy! Well, it was because we broke down in a nice remote spot... fortunately our driver seemed to be a whizz at fixing broken cars so we weren't delayed too long!! Alas the day didn't end well.... back in Lhasa I, a vegetarian, seemed to get some kind of food poisoning! And there was me thinking I was immune... obviously not becuase I spent the next 3 days being ill. :0( By this point I was back in my 27 bed dorm, scaring the Chinese I was sharing with who wanted me off to the hospital!!

I'd had plans of a few more day trips out of town for my last few days in Lhasa but after 3 days of no food I didn't really feel up to it... instead, after a few lessons from the Chinese in my dorm, I went shopping on the market stalls of Barkhor square... sooo much 'genuine' turquoise jewellery (the Tibetans believe turquoise has healing properties) to be had here!! I'm pretty sure I didn't do as well as the Chinese guys would have done but it seems to have cured me of my bargaining phobia ;0)

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Comments

[S]

Base camp
Well done you, I was uber amazed to see an everest trip.. Keep on treking and sending fab photos back. I think I'd rather swap places.. it's too hot here :)

[Paul]

I'm so jealous