I’ve seen Everest.
I spent the night at Base Camp (actually it seems there are three base camps on the northern (Tibetan) side). I walked to the second base camp. I saw lots of cloud. And I saw Everest itself.
Ok, so the first Base Camp (where I stayed) is at 5150m. It is a collection of tents, two toilets and a car park. Cars are not allowed beyond this point. It was here that we checked into our tent. When I say tent, I mean hotel. When I say hotel, I mean tent. Anyway, there was a hotel (it was a tent with two rooms). The main room contained several beds and a central stove. The stove was burning dung mostly (odd bits of wood product too). The stove was boiling water as well as heating the tent. On each bed there were several blankets. I had dinner in my hotel. Fried rice. Very nice.
And I drank lots of tea. The dinner had been cooked in the other room of the hotel/tent.
The beds were very cosy though at several points during the night I woke up and tried to cool down since I was too hot.
The sleeplessness was probably due to the very mild headache and the altitude (the headache also due to the altitude).
There were two toilets. By which I mean sheds with gaps in the floor. And a note for all women who are planning on visiting Everest: Plastic does not degrade. If you are going to use sanitary items made from plastic, please don’t leave them in the ‘toilet’. Take them away with you and dispose of them properly. Better yet, don’t use them in the first place. (This is not an ad for the mooncup.) The toilets didn’t work after dark (I think the shed was locked). So it was a case of take a torch and find a bit of ground to call your own.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re all far more interested in Everest than in the facilities at Base Camp number 1. I walked the three kilometers up the road to Base Camp 2. This is at 5200m and is the highest point I’ve been to. The 3km walk took me about 50mins. Which is incredibly slow for me (at sea level) but seems is quite fast for people at 5100m. The walk was hard. It was very cold and the wind was howling down the valley into my face. It seems somewhat unfair when suffering from thin air and lack of oxygen to also be suffering from excess wind. But there you go. The road zig zags up the hill. I tried taking a shortcut and went straight up at one point. Bad idea. Definitely shorter but steeper and at that altitude even a few extra centimeters are hard!
I saw some mink. Well, I think they were mink, my guide later described them as the animals that they make fur coats out of by skinning them alive. Which sounds very unfriendly indeed.
I got to Base Camp 2. I went with my guide (she’d got the mini bus – sensible girl) to the military checkpoint to be checked. There are signs there that this is the furthest point that normal people are allowed. The third base camp is the one for mountaineers and that’s further up but you need a special permit for that. Well, 5200m is more than enough for me.
So lots of photos were taken. Some bouncing was done. The highest Kath bounce on earth!
Everest was not seen because it was too cloudy. But undaunted, I figured I could find a photo with a visible Everest and photoshop me into it. It wouldn’t really be lying! Honest. Hmmm.
My fingers warmed up just enough for me to send some texts. But several others were sent from the ‘hotel’.
We got the mini bus back down to our hotel.
En route we stopped at a monastery and got a tour. I climbed down a hole in the ground to see a meditation cave. I clambered over rocks to see impressions in rocks and holy places. I saw one of the holy sky burial sites. I saw paintings and prayer flags and white scarves. I heard stories. I learnt a lot. I sat in the monk’s kitchen and drank sweet tea and ate peanuts. (The tea wasn’t as sweet as Sri Lankan milk tea, but it was as milky.)
Later that evening the cloud cleared a little and I saw a tiny corner of Everest. Excellent!!
The next morning I was up at 7:30 to see the sunrise on Everest. Instead of which I saw a lot of very low cloud (can cloud be low at 5150m?) and went to the newly opened toilets.
But by 9ish the wind (I love wind, I will hear nothing bad said about it) had whipped most of the cloud away and Everest bathed in early morning sunshine stood proudly in front of me. I could actually see it. And it’s incredible. And (as I’ve mentioned in another post) the summit is another 3600m above where I was. So I took some photos. My guide took some photos with me in them. And I just stood and stared till my fingers went numb and I had to go back to the hotel to warm up.
The valley that we were in was also incredible. And while Everest is Everest (can’t argue with the highest mountain on earth), there was a really great ridge to my left that was spiky and wonderful. The mountains on the right hand side were a bit rounder and gentler. In the background (or as my guide would say, at the backside) of these were some awesome snow-capped peaks. Down the middle ran a river that was white and foamy and looked freezing and not to be argued with. On the ground were rocks and stones and pebbles.
Not exactly a holiday destination I’d like to spend a two week break at. Not somewhere I’d like to go back to every year. But somewhwere I would love to go back to again (it seems May is a better time of year). And somewhere I am so very, very glad to have been able to get to this time.
Kath went to base camp. Bounce!!!! Grin!!!!