Chomolungma
Trip Start
May 20, 2010
1
21
195
Trip End
Sep 05, 2011
Rongbuk, Xizang, China
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Day : 48
Temperature : 0 degrees - 35 degrees
Weather : Sunny with scattered clouds - Rainy
Altitude : 5,200 metres - 1, 500 metres
Qomolongma or Chomolungma - Mother Goddess of the Earth - otherwise known as Mount Everest. But for the purpose of this blog I will refer to her by the traditional name of Chomolongma.
Out of everything we have done over the past six weeks this was going to be one of the highlights so far, and for me personally perhaps one of the highlights of the entire trip. Kevin, Renske, and I left Lhasa full of excitement in our 4x4 land cruiser with our driver Wangbe and our guide Tashi. On the first day we drove for about 4 hours past the stunning scenery of Yamdrok Lake and onto Gyantse (altitude 3,950 m), a typical Tibetan village, where we stayed overnight in a rather bleak Chinese hotel. The following day we made the relatively short 2 hour journey to Shigatse (altitude 3,900m) where Tashi our guide applied for our travel permits. We stayed in the Tenzin Hotel, which was in the Lonely Planet, but obviously things have changed in the past 3 years since the spotlessly clean toilets were anything but clean, the restaurant which should have been a great place to hang out had been closed down and the air-conditioning in our room no longer worked! Our third day was the longest drive being about 4 hours to New Tingri where we passed through more military and passport checks. We stopped for lunch and bought our permits which allowed us entry into Chomolongma Park. We then turned onto a dirt track road, passing even more passport checks, for a 100km bumpy ride up over another high pass at 5,250m where we were due to have magnificient views of Chomolongma, Makulu, Cho Oyu and many other peaks. Unfortunately it seemed the entire Himalayan range was covered in a blanket of cloud and we saw absolutely zilch! Undeterred we drove on along the increasingly bumpy dirt track, stopping occasionally for a toilet break behind the odd rock, and to take some painkillers for our headaches – going up and down over the high passes with rapid altitude changes really makes you feel miserable! But nevertheless we hoped that if our journey was tough enough then Chomolongma might reward us with some exceptional views. We eventually passed the Rongbuk Monestary and drove on, through more passport checks, to base camp – which is not the real base camp because surprise, surprise the Chinese military are camped there! Chomolongma was nowhere to be seen, she was covered in a veil of thick white cloud. After an hour or so we decided to retreat into our touristy tent and pass the time drinking tea and playing cards. At about 8pm I ventured out to the really gross toilet and noticed that the cloud was shifting. We all donned our thermals and jackets and ran outside with our cameras in the hope that we would finally see the mountain. We sat for what seemed like an eternity, the clouds moved and shifted but we were only teased with momentary glimpses of the mountain before the clouds covered what little we could see. It was obvious that Chomolongma seems to create her own weather pattern as the clouds seemed to cling to her slopes and were whipped around the sides and front, whereas everywhere else there was clear blue skies! It was so frustrating. Just as we were starting to think that all our time, money and effort might be in vain the clouds seemed to dissipate and we could barely see a faint outline of the slopes. Then finally, after hours waiting in the freezing cold, right before our eyes the clouds disappeared and the mountain was clearly there right in front of us dazzling in the bright sunshine!
How can the sight of a mountain be so overwhelming? It's just a mountain isn’t it? But this isn’t just any mountain. Chomolongma towers at 8,848 metres above sea level, that’s the same altitude that commercial aircraft fly at, high enough to be in the jet stream! This is the highest point on our planet and it was right in front of us. How on earth can people climb so high? We were at 5,200 metres and the wind was fierce! What must the conditions be like up there? Maybe you will only succeed if Chomolongma allows you to! And if she doesn’t then you will be lucky to make it down alive….and many people haven’t, in effect making the mountain a gravesite. Strange to think of it this way when you are looking at it.
It’s inevitable when you are travelling that your thoughts will often return to home and the people whom you have left behind. On this particular part of our trip our thoughts drifted many times to our friends Nigel and Saskia, and particularly Nigel who we know would have loved to have been here, and who we wished was here with us to share this amazing experience. So, Nigel, I’m sure one day you will make it here and climb Chomolongma, and when you do we will be sitting at base camp supporting you every single step of the way!
We left the mountain towards Nepal, each of us in our own little worlds, lost in our thoughts and memories of Chomolungma. After another long day on the dusty, bumpy dirt track through the mountains we headed down towards Zangmu, the Chinese border town. The scenery dramatically changed in the space of 10 miles from the arid dry landscapes of the Himalayas to lush, green scenery of the lower mountains. Unfortunately 7km from the town we came across road works ...the road was completely blocked by a JCB which had broken down. Nobody could tell us when and if the road would be open. So after some quick thinking we jumped out of the jeep, carried our rucksacks half a kilometer across the blocked road and got a taxi to the depressing town of Zangmu, where we stayed in another awful Chinese hotel, this time without showers, dirty toilets, and bed linen that probably hadn't been washed in 6 months!
The following morning we had an early start for the border which was only 10 mins by car away. Unfortunately, we got pulled over by the army and for some reason we weren't allowed to drive any further! Out of the jeep again, rucksacks on, and we walked another 10 mins to the border. We bumped into 4 travellers who we met in Lhasa, then again at Everest Base Camp....Uschi from Germany, James from England, Karl from Australia, and Ryan from the USA. When the border opened we all piled in, only to be met by more painful security checks by the Chinese.....every single bag belonging to every single person was opened and thoroughly searched - for pictures of the Dalai Lama!!!! Karl's lonely planet book was confiscated because it had a picture of the Dalai Lama in it! They are not bothered by drugs, weapons or other dangerous items....they looked like they'd disovered a bomb when they found Karl's lonely planet book! By now we were desperate to reach Nepal, fed up with the Chinese military and police.
We crossed the "Friendship bridge", passing all the Chinese armed guards, reached the Nepal side, bought our visas, and instantly it smelled different, the people looked different and dressed different! All the taxi drivers tried to rip us off for prices to Kathmandu, so we wandered down the mountain roads in the hope of catching a public bus, but even the bus driver tried to rip us off. We stopped to rest whilst James and Uschi walked back up the road in an attempt to find some transport. They returned victorious, standing up in the back of a pick-up jeep having found someone on the street with a vehicle willing to take us to Kathmandu. We spent the journey in the back, sat ontop of the rucksacks and waving to the friendly lorry drivers and kids at the side of the road, and finally arrived in Kathmandu last night.
How nice it was to finally have a shower and feel clean again after 5 days! We now have no definite plans, only to get some laundry done and start exploring Kathmandu, which looks and smells and sounds fantastic!
Comments
Wow, spectacular pictures, so glad you got to see Everest. Amazing!!!!!
Lots of love to you both,
Holx
I dont know about Nigel - I would love to return to Nepal. The last time I was there the navigator had mislaid his maps and we couldnt decide which one was Everest as they all looked high! I really would plan to stay there for as long as you can as you do seem to have been on the go since you left Kemble. Great pictures. Melo sends her love Dad
AMAZING !!! ..... so glad the cloud cleared for you after all that effort !!... can you bring me a little piece back ..so I could say I ahve at least touched Everest ??
boys send their love .... they love seeing all your pics
xxxxx
Great to hear you got to Everest and saw the summit .
Photos are great and hope the headaches have gone and you are now going to have a rest for a few days.
Getting hard to keep up with your travels on the map, going so fast.
Take care.
Love from all at Chesterton.
Susan and Sarah looked at the latest pics and loved the Yaks. Everest (or Mt Ch...something) looked cold but I guess so at 5km up.
Let us know where you are going next and keep up the pics and blog.
Antony
hello everyone! yeah we were really lucky to see mount everest. ants - i think we will spend the next 3 weeks in nepal, then maybe next stop surin???! it will depend on flights....when are you there?
Looks great guys! Can only imagine how amazing it must be to see Everest appear in front of you.
We've booked our honeymoon btw!!! With Steppes and very excited!! The budget did grow quite a bit but totally worth it! And i've already purchased 2 new lens and a teleconvertor to get the winning shot of next years Wildlife Photographer of the Year!!!!
We're off to Scotland in 2 days and will climb our own mini everest of Goatfell at 2,866 feet!!!!
xxx