Alex's Asian Adventure

We left Shegar behind like a skanky hoe (except we couldn't ditch Megan, which would have been vaguely appropriate).

Rongbuk Monastery is roughly 100km away from Shegar by dirt road full of potholes that would swallow my car whole. Rongbuk is also 8km away from Everest Base Camp. One thing that no one bothered to inform us about is that we can only take our jeep as far as about 30km away from Rongbuk, at which point we buy ticket (at an extortionary 80 kuai roundtrip) on board a rickety bus stuffed with luggage and humanity. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

To get to this bus stop, we first go over Pang La, a mountain pass (5220m). The view from Pang La is absolutely amazing. There's a partial picture (stolen from the web; mine are trapped on the camera) to the right. On the left is Chomolangma (aka Everest). On the right is the lower summit of Cho Oyu, 8201m (6th highest peak). Hidden behind Everest is Lhotse, 8501m (4th hightest in the world). What you don't see is Makalu, 8462k (5th hightest) , further to the left. Makalu is one of the most gorgeous mountains the world.

Anyway, I jumped out of the Land Cruiser, saw the view (it was crystal-clear) and nearly crapped myself with joy. There was much photography, believe me.

Fast forward to Rongbuk. We arrived 12:30-ish, got a room at the monastery's guesthouse and had lunch. Caroline, Demelza & myself were bent on walking the 8km to the base camp itself. Megan was being her whiny self and didn't seem keen to go, probably because she is weak, out of shape, and spoiled. But she wasn't about to ride the horse cart on her own, so walking she went. Oh, and the view from Rongbuk is really quite stunning. Google "Rongbuk Monastery" if you don't believe me.

I should point out that I walked faster than these three girls. Why? Because I am in shape and excited. Anyway, part way up the walk, as I was taking a little rest, I met up with two fit-looking guys making their way briskly up the dirt path. Turns out Mathieu and Vince are both Canadians, and both climbing the 8848m rock pile ahead. They have both already slept at 7500m. They are in shape. Acclimatized. Much more so than I in both respects - but I put on a valiant effort of keeping up (only stopping to say "yo, guys, hold on and let me catch my breath" about twice). As soon as we got to base camp, I collapsed on a rock and ate a Clif bar in an attempt to refuel my body.

Base camp itself is divided into two parts: teahouse city and tent city (names invented by me). Teahouse city is closer, and consists of about 20 big A-frame tents that serve tea & food by day and sleep people by night. Mathieu & Vince recommended Hotel California, and that's where we all went.

At Hotel California, we also met Patricio (aka Patrick), an Ecuadorian climber who's apparently getting speeding tickets on Everest because he's covering ground way too quickly. Faster than a speeding Sherpa! Smarter than a locomotive! More powerful than... a speeding Sherpa! To be fair, I actually met Patricio when ventured out to find Mathieu and ask him for some painkillers for Caroline, who wasn't doing too well at the altitude (5200m). He's recognizable by the huge number of sponsor-patches he has on his shirt.

Patricio is one of the most genuine, down-to-earth, good-natured individuals I've ever met. He needed a ride to Shegar the next day to have a rest break before going for a summit push. We agreed to try to help him, if our driver Dawa cooperates. We're all friends forever - at least pair-wise friends with Patricio, since Megan is one of those people I'd rather cut out of my life.

Anyway, Hotel California was so cool, we spent the evening and night there. Interesting things that happened after sundown include:

• Megan ventured out to relieve herself, with Caroline as a human shield, and discovered that some Tibetan was staring at her in close quarters.
• Megan proceeded to run to the tent as quickly as possible.
• 15 minutes later Megan says "why does it smell like shit here?" and realizes that she has ordure on her shoe.
• 3 seconds later Alex starts laughing.

Anyway, I was a gentleman and went outside into the bitter, punishing cold to shine my headlight on Megan's shoe as she cleaned the unidentified ordure off as best she could. It was very amusing to watch.

That night we slept at Hotel California. I fell asleep to the sound of Tibetans having a party outside, in the bitter punishing cold. Patricio went out to videotape them. I wasn't dressed for the occasion and stayed inside comforted by a warm down blanket, a nalgene filled with hot water, and my fleece.

The next morning, May 9th, I saw Everest bathed in morning light and took a lot of pictures while enduring the bitter, punishing cold. It should also be noted that May 9th-10th is the 10-year anniversary of the 1996 Everest disaster well-documented in books such as Into Thin Air and The Climb and Left for Dead.

We left Rongbuk at around lunchtime and drove to Lhatse for an overnight stay. Not much to say about Lhatse. Patricio got a ride into Shegar, and we watched a climber eat the equivalent of four people's food by himself. It was a sight to see.

Incidentally, Patricio invited us all to Ecuador. I might take him up on that for maybe a 2-week vacation that would include a climb of Cotopaxi or Chimborazo or something. Oh, and a trip to the Galapagos. Wow!

I wish Patricio, Mathieu and Vince all the best and hope they all summit safely.

Final thoughts: Staying at Everest Base Camp was one of the coolest things I've ever done. If I had more time and more equipment (ie warm clothes and crampons), I would have tried to find a way to go up from base camp to Advanced Base Camp at 6400m. That'd require at least another day of acclimatization at 5200m, a day going up, and a day coming down. But... how cool would that be?