Everest

Mt. Everest

Our whirlwind trip to Tibet continued the next day with our trip to Mt. Everest. Planning a whirlwind trip to a city12,000 feet in elevation for sea level dwellers is not smart. We all spent the night suffering through variying degress of altitued sickness; pounding headache, nausea, dizziness. Fortunately our hotel had herbal remedies and cans of oxygen in the mini-bar. The rule on mini-bar items is NO consumption. In this case we didn't care how overpriced these remedies were, WE NEEDED OXYGEN!

The drive to Everest basecamp took us over five mountain passes that started at 13,000 feet and peaked at 18,000 feet! At each summit the van would stop for us to use the "facilities", look at the local souvineer stands, take silly photos on yaks and buy some beverages. All I could stand was about 5 minutes before I began sick again. I felt decent if I was quiet and still. Plus, a few naps helped pass the time too.

The Road

Silly Yak Photo

As we drove through several villages we saw people threshing wheat, hearding sheep which at times would stop traffic, letting cattle graze and my favorite - afixing "cow pies" to the side of their brick fences or brick houses to dry. When properly dried the "pies" are pulled and used for heating fuel in the middle of winter. Wonder what that smells like. Hmmmmm...

Vehicles must yield to passing sheep

Threshing Wheat

We made it to our hotel/motel at 9:00pm after driving 12 hours! I was impressed with the accommodations out in the middle of Tibet. Bummer we didn't notice the heater above the door, operated by remote control, until the morning. We all slept in our long underwear, clothes, Mountain Hardware Compressor coats, hats and wool socks. No problem for a famliy from Alaska right? Not so, I was fffrrrreeeezzzziiinnggg. The altitude sickness that I was experiencing again had to be a contributing factor. Not sure about the science behind that one but my deductive reasoning says so.

As I was in bed trying desperatly to get and stay warm, Robert was up with Cameron who was vomiting most of the night. Around 2:30am Taylor came knocking on our door nauseous from a pounding headache. A couple of Advil, special Tibetan herbal medicing and a few good hits on the oxygen bottle helped Taylor fall asleep. It was a rough night! We were all questioning if seeing Mt. Everest was worth the torture.

We woke to a beautiful, crisp, crystal clear day. One more moutian pass an hour away and we would see the summit! Mt. Everest is much like Mt. McKinley/Denali back home in that you are considered "lucky" if you actually get to see the peak due to weather patterns obscuring the view most of the time.

We were indeed "lucky". We pulled to the top of the summit to see the entire range - five peaks above 8000 meters or 26,000 feet - not a cloud in the sky, 100% visible!! It was spectacular! T3here were mountains everywere, peak after peak after peak as far as the eye could see. You really felt like you were on the "roof of the world".

Now we had a decision to make. Do we continue on the basecamp to say we stood there or head back to Lhasa? Since you cannot actually see the summit from basecamp, and we were still feeling a bit lousy and we just had a "lucky day" view of Everest we decided to head back. It was unanimous!

Now I can say I have been to Tibet and seen Mt. Everest. However, at the risk of sounding like a spoilsport I think the view of Denali on a crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky day is hands down, without a doubt more impressive! Plus, you don't have to endure needless suffering.