10/2 This was day 1 of Hairy Himalayas, which will continue into No
shave November and then No shave Nepal. Drove in our Land Cruiser
from Lhasa to Shigaste. We had a driver, 6ft 6 Leon in the front, and
Arie, Erik, and I in the backseat. Poor Dolkar, our guide, was stuck
in the way back with our backpacks. The drive of course was amazing.
Huge snowcapped mountains everywhere and over some huge and crazy
passes. Something that makes the scenery even more unique is how
absolutely dry the Tibetan plateau is. Its basically a desert. More
arid and desolate than many deserts we are used to at home. Theres
absolutely no tress, very little plant life (no cactuses or shrubs or
anything. Makes the sonoran desert look like a rainforest). So this
stark desert contrasted with gleaming white glaciers and snowcapped
peaks set below a deep blue sky is really quite amazing. I love
Deserts and really, really love Mountains, so this is like perfect for
me. And of course everynow and then you pass these little mud/brick
house villages with a spattering of tibetans, loads of yaks, and some
donkeys. It always amazed us just how there could be people surviving
in some of the places. Our first big stop was Yamdrok Tso Lake. We
looked down on it from on top of a huge pass. It gleamed a surreal
turquoise far down below us with snowcapped peaks behind it. We
eventually made our way down to waterlevel where we had a great time
skipping stones. Momma D (Dolkar) had to pull us away. It had to
have been the best skipping lake I have ever been to. I would tell
you how many times I got my best rock to skip, but you wouldnt believe
me, so I wont, but it was witnessed by all. The rocks there were
perfectly flat, must have had the right density or something, throw in
the the thin air, the fact that the lake was completely still, and
that it was salt (things float better in salt water) and the lake was
the ultimate skipping lake. From Yamdrok Tso we went over a couple
more passes, a few complete with glaciers coming down near the road
before we arrived at another gorgeous lake...another amazing turquoise
color. We made a stop in Gyantse where we saw a big temple/monastery
and also a castle type thing built up on the cliffs of a hill. We
ended the night by arriving in Shigaste. We had rushed to be there in
time before the office closed to get our permit for Everest. We made
it in time, but what we didnt realize was that it was Chinas national
day (of course non of the tibetans were celebrating!) so the office
was closed. This meant that we couldnt leave until the 11 the next
day instead of 7. I was cursing the Chinese thinking we wouldnt make
it in time to see Everest the next day. Its fine to have a holiday,
but all this permit junk. Why cant you get the permit at Everest or
in Lhasa, why in this tiny town. So I went to bed with fear that we
would not make it to Everest as we had a long and rough road to get to
Everest the next day and weather often comes in in the afternoon
10/3 We spent the morning visiting the temple/monastery in Shigaste
and then just watching the people pray as we sat in the square facing
the temple. As soon as Dolkar secured the permit, we took off. Do I
need to even mention that the drive was gorgeous? A couple hours into
it we got to see the huge himalaya range and Everest from a distance.
It was a bit cloudy and you couldnt quite see the top of Everest...but
hey we had seen it. We went over some more big passes and, lets see
at least 5 millitary guarded Everest National Park checkpoints where
we had to show passports, permits, etc. Time was getting short and
we were getting frustrated with all the checkpoints. First the Permit
in shigaste. Then like 5 stops on the way before entering the park.
Then the park entrance stop, then 2 more stops before reaching where
we would camp. Then there was a passport check there and then another
passport check at the end of the road to everest base camp. It would
be like if in order to get to the base camp of Longs Peak (Longs Peak
ranger station) you had to get a permit in Denver...then show it and
passports in Boulder, Lyons, Pinewood, the entrance to Estes, Estes,
and then the park headquarters, before driving to Allenspark to show
it again and then showing it again at the ranger station and then
gobblins forest campground. Really insane. And there was only one
dirt road, so it seemed like once you were in, that should have been
it.
Once on the dirt road in the park, we went over a really huge pass
full of winding switchbacks. From the top we got Nice views of
Everest and Cho Oyo (also above 8000m). Fro the pass we descended
into a high valley with a fairly big tibetan village. We then climbed
a bit out of the valley following a river and into a glacial valley.
The sun had completely set on everything around us and of course we
had another checkpoint. But after leaving the checkpoint, we drove
around a bend in the glacial valley...and...BOOM, right in front of us
stood a flaming orange snow covered mountain...EVEREST! It was so
high that the sun had not yet set on it. It was absolutely
breathtaking. Everything else long in the shadows, but Everest lit up
by the setting sun. That night we slept in some tents made from Yak
hide at about 5150m (17,000ft). It was of course quite cold and we
had a Yak dung fire to keep us warm.
10/4 Watched a cold and icy sunrise on Everest. It was quite cold.
Id estimate about 10F. The reason I think it was so cold was bc I
tried to cross the now frozen river to get some better pictures (it
wasnt frozen that night) and fell through the ice, which was no big
deal as the river was less than a food deep, but the splashed
instantly froze to my pants and jacket and I had solid ice on the
outside of my shoes and pants even though there was obviously heat
coming from underneath. After watching the sunrise we took the hour
hike to the actual Everest base camp at 5200m. This is China, so you
can obviously take a bus to it (cant wait til there is a gondola and 5
star hotel on the Chinese summit side of Everest). Dolkar and Erik
did this, but me and the dutch guys chose to walk. The road had a lot
of switchbacks, so we decided to cut them by taking a trail we saw on
the left side of the valley. The trail rose much higher than the road
and we decided to stay on it, figuring that it would crest over and
into basecamp again. It did, though we were a 100m or so above and a
bit past the chinese post of basecamp. As we were coming down, Dolkar
ran up towards us with obvious worry on her face. In the route we had
taken we had gone 100m past the chinese checkpoint, which meant we
could all get in trouble. We didnt bc the chinese guard was sitting
in his warm tent and not really looking at the mountains behind us.
But how were we to know taking a marked trail would lead us a bit past
some checkpoing, bc of course we werent thinking that there would be
yet another checkpoint. At this point our blood was roiling at the
chinese for their extreme checkpoint measures. There was still a huge
and cool glacial valley before us that could be explored, but for some
reason, even though we had paid the 60 dollar each fee for the
national park, we were only allowed to stay on this one little road
and be checked with our passports and permit every couple of
kilometers. Quite rediculous to us. We couldnt understand why you
dont just pay the fee and then have all access to the park. Oh well,
this frustration did not stop us from really enjoying the view of
Everest from Base camp and wishing a bit we could go for the climb up
Everest. Back at our Everest base camp, I mailed a postcard to the
parents from the highest post office in the world and we toasted a 3.2
percent beer from 17,000 feet.
From the base camp we took a really, really sweet 4WD road over some
passes and high plateaus in utter desolate desert to Old Tingri. If
youve seen 7 years of tibet, some of that desolate scenery could have
been filmed here. The road just snaked around moutains, glacial river
beds, and desert plateau. On this road we had some really great views
of Cho Oyo. After Old Tingri and back onto a newly paved chinese
road, we went up to 5000m again on the high desert plateau. If you
looked ahead, it looked like the road was going straight into the high
himalayas. You could see great views of the high himalayas and some
famous peaks you may have heard of like Shisgapangma (8000+m). Just
when you thought the road would go straight into the himalayas, it cut
down sharply into a steep and narrow gorge. At the bottom of the
gorge was a rushing river. The gorge soon became quite lush with
waterfalls falling down everywhere and many actually falling onto the
road. We followed this gorge on a precipitous, windy road clinging to
his gorge. At times you could see that the wheels of the landcrusier
were less than a foot from the edge of a cliff that dropped down 2000
feet. That evening we reached the strange border town of Zhangmu
built on the steep gorge itself. So all there was was one road
winding through it. No flat land for a soccer pitch or parking or
anything. Really crazy.
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