May 21, 2009:
I have a new-found admiration for those who climb and summit Mt. Everest! See the little hill where people are standing in the photo above? If you climb up it you can get an even better view of Mt. Everest. George and I headed towards it, but after a few steps I had to sit on a rock and catch my breath, while George proceeded a little farther up. I was exhausted after about 15 minutes outside the vehicle of taking photos and had to head back to the shelter of the warm Landcruiser. Climbing Mt. Everest is definitely not on my list of life time goals, if walking a few steps at the very lowest base camp, after spending the night in a tent hotel, took all my energy. The tents you see in the photo above are for the climbers and you have to pay a king’s ransom to stay here. Cheers to the climbers who are able to make it any distance up Everest! You are amazing!
The ‘real’ name of Mt. Everest is Qomolangma. Our guide did not seem happy when we asked him what he thought about Qomolangma being called Mt. Everest and we agree, so we made an effort to call it Qomolangma from that point on. Now, if you are in Nepal, you should probably call it by their given name, Sagarmatha, but that’s a whole different story.
Smiling for the camera and pretending I don’t feel like fainting from the lack of oxygen. We got lucky that day as the sun was shining bright and Qomolangma was in clear view! Not everyone is as lucky as even the day before we only saw parts of Qomolangma.
Even though it was sunny it was freezing cold and both of us were ready to collapse from our rough night in the tent and from the continued altitude sickness. There were plenty of tourists around full of energy and we wondered how they could be in such good spirits? Turns out, a bus load of them woke very early and made the journey from the nearest town that morning. That sounds like a great idea now, but the experience of spending the night at the base camp was priceless!
Qomolangma is not the only beautiful mountain in this area. In fact, the reserve has 5 peaks that reach 8,000 meters! One thing that also took us by surprise was the lack of vegetation. There were plants and wild flowers but you had to look very closely to see them!
After visiting the base-camp we were happy to leave the high elevation and the cold, but it was still a 2 hour bumpy jeep ride to exit the Qomolangma Natural Reserve. We were hoping to make it all the way to the border that evening, but due to road construction we had no choice but to spend the night in a tiny old town called Old Shekar (aka Tingri). The construction of a paved road with antiquated machinery meant we couldn’t pass through and the photo above shows our accommodation for the night. We paid 100 Yuan for the 2 of us, but the conditions were more sparse than the tent hotel. We could only imagine that this is what life was like in the wild west over 100 years ago! The room only had 2 tiny beds and a small dangling weak light. No toilet or running water and a door that wouldn’t quite shut. Good thing there were plenty of blankets as it was a very cold night! There was an out-house (if you can call it that) and if you wanted to take a shower you had to pay an additional 15 Yuan per/person. Good thing we were used to this routine already and bought some bottled water from across the street to wash our faces and brush our teeth. There may not have been any running water in the entire town. We don’t have a photo but there was a well in the middle of this courtyard that was manual – meaning you had to use a rope and have a bucket to retrieve water! We saw several locals enter the property to fill their jugs of water for the evening.