Conquering Everest

…or just Everest Base Camp. :) We left Lhasa on Saturday and traversed several hundred kilometers to the small town of Shegar, stopping by the town Gyantse to see the Pelkhor Chode Monastery and Tibet’s second largest city, Shigatse, where we spent the night. We also visited the impressive and large Tashilhumpo Monastery and the open-air market in Shigatse.

The drive to Shegar was gorgeous and looked like scenes that might be depicted in National Geographic. The landscape is different from the Amdo area as there are different minerals in the rocks and soil, and the area is at a higher elevation. Most of the passes we crossed on our way to Shegar were around 4500m. We didn’t feel any signs of altitude sickness aside from a headache, which is normal in higher elevations. We were told that our stay in Xining, which is at about 2300m, helped in our acclimatization process.

On the day of our visit to Everest Base Camp, we woke up around 7AM, quickly ate breakfast, packed up, and left for our destination! We drove about 3 hours to Everest Base Camp, also known as Quomolangma Base Camp. This is the Chinese name for Everest, and the Tibetan name is Chomolama. When we arrived at Base Camp, a thick layer of clouds hung over Everest, blocking most of the mountain. We sat and waited for quite some time, keeping our fingers crossed that the clouds would break and that the peak would be visible. After about an hour, our prayers were answered, and Everest’s peak peeked through a small hole in the clouds! We quickly took some pictures, and before we knew it, Everest disappeared once again behind its curtain of clouds.

On our return drive the sky continued to clear and we were able to view Everest from a distance and with minimal cloud cover! Giddy with excitement, we took several pictures, some of which can be seen if you click ‘Additional Photos’ to the right. We hear that the weather in this area is highly unpredictable, and we’re so thankful to have been able to visit Everest and see her peak!

We also visited a small monastery called Rongbuk, located near Base Camp. At about 5,200m, Rongbuk is the highest monastery in the world. We headed back to Lhasa, staying the night in Shigatse at the hotel we had stayed at two nights prior.