Hike 17kms, 4 hours or so. Up to 5200metres, still sleeping at 5000m.
A rest day, the first since we got to Lhasa. The snow fell pretty hard last night, so after knocking it off the tents, we decided against biking the 8k to basecamp and hiked it. We took a high route foolishly though, and after 1k scree skiied down to the gravel road to continue on. Some great old ruins built into the landslide though, could see kitchens, rooms, everything..
When we got closer to base camp, Everest came into view, base to summit. HUGE.
The final k or so was over the ice core moraine, and the Rongbuk Glacier came into view...it once went well past the monastery and on.
Base camp is but a long wide gravel glacial outwash. Theres a few permanent buildings, but theres no tents set up right now, its not the summit season. At the base camp "office" we had our lunch. Its something Ill never forget for sure, leaning back on my pack, with Mount Everest in front in full view, the blazing sun baking us, while reading the book on the search for George Mallory, and pointing to where they found, and buried, his body in 1999.
I took a solo walk up to the toe of the glacier, then across to the makeshift cemetary to pay my respects. I thought of all the history here, the famous people who Ive read about so long who walked this path, some who died up on those slopes, and the dreams that were left here with it.The walk back was long, and Mark and I were beaten by the end of it. Took a stroll through Rongbuk afterwards. After dinner, 5of us went over to the guesthouse nearby. It was weird to see so many other people/tourists again, and we tasted just a bit of booze to toast the day.
Pema Sherpa predicted a -20celsius sleep....
No comments:
Post a Comment