Blog: Mount Everest: Chinese Base Camp

On the morning of April 28, I awoke in the dark and turned on my headlamp. It lit up my dark hotel room and my breath, visible in the cold air. I quickly got up, packed my gear and took my bags down to the courtyard. After a quick breakfast at the hotel with Trudy, another trekker in my group, we found our driver, Norbu, and loaded up in an old Toyota SUV at about 8 a.m. He slowly drove out of Tingri and headed north on an unpaved road towards the mountains.

Norbu had driven this path many times and knew his way, but the sixty miles quickly proved to be rough and, at times, dangerous. The trail sometimes passed steep drop off's, and at other times, simply disappeared. We knew it would take about three hours, and we rode the first hour in near silence as we waited for the morning fog to burn off. Finally it did and we were greeted with beautiful views of snowy mountain and open valleys. As we continued south through the stark terrain, we turned the corner and at last saw Mount Everest, still many miles away, bright in the morning sun.

It was a view that I had seen many pictures of, but it was surreal to be finally standing in Tibet, looking at the mountain. After some quick pictures, we got back in the SUV and made our way past the iconic Rongbuk Monastery, through a small tent market and to a Chinese military checkpoint. After our papers and passports were checked, we rolled into SummitClimb's tent camp in the area know as Chinese Base Camp at an elevation of 17,000 feet. We unloaded our bags, bid Norbu farewell and walked over to the dining tent, where we regrouped with our guide, Raj.

In addition to the large dining tent, there was a cooking tent, a latrine tent and a shower tent (not sure if that was ever used). I stowed my gear in a tent I was sharing with another member of our trekking group and simply stood there in awe of the view, breathing hard in the thin air, as even simple tasks quickly winded me and reminded me of the altitude. I walked around the large valley a bit and looked at the other camps, a colorful collection of tents in the gray and brown valley.  Approximately twelve miles to the south, but seemingly close enough to touch, was the north face of Mount Everest, rising over two miles above the valley floor at a height of 29,035 feet, the highest peak on the planet. 

The British, in the early 1920's, were the first to attempt to summit the mountain known in the local language as Chomolungma, or "Mother Goddess of the Universe."  Those British expeditions failed, but did lend much legend to the history of mountaineering when two of the climbers, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, were last spotted high on the mountain and headed towards the summit in 1924, before vanishing. Mallory's body was found in 1999, but Irvine's has yet to found (and may never be). Many theories abound, both for and against, on whether or not they made the summit.

The day went by quickly, and after dinner, I made a call home on the satellite phone to let my family know my location and that I was doing well. The night wasn't very cold, maybe in the 20's, but I didn't sleep very well, which is a common ailment of trying to get acclimated to high elevation. Raj had a hike planned for the trekking group, so we packed a lunch and some extra clothes in our rucksacks, and hiked back down the valley towards the Rongbuk Monastery.

The day was beautiful, sunny and warm, as we made fairly good time. I was breathing much harder than I had on my weekly training hikes in Minnesota and was glad to stop for lunch. After the meal, we started back up the valley.  Along with some others in the group, I set a slow pace as the sun felt like it was pounding on top of my head. Even with glacier sun glaciers, the sun was intensely bright. Finally, we made it to the tent market area and stopped to rest and drink some tea. One tent was run by the Chinese postal system and I sent some postcards from what is arguably the highest post office in the world. Being tired, we spent a couple of dollars to take a small bus the last couple of miles back up the valley to Chinese Base Camp.

I slept much better that night, but woke up in the morning with a headache caused from the altitude and dehydration (the air was very dry and this turned out to be my typical morning while on the mountain). I was the early riser of the group, so was usually the first to the dining tent, where I drank many a hot beverage, mostly hot orange drink and tea. This final day in Chinese Base Camp consisted of a short group hike and lots of rest and last minute repacking of gear. After several days of acclimating, the plan was to head up to Intermediate Base Camp, about six miles up the valley at 19,000 feet. Yaks would carry our heavy bags, while we hiked up the rough, rocky trails higher onto the mountain.

Next up: A tough hike to Intermediate Base Camp on the north side of Mount Everest - not much of a view, but halfway to the goal of getting to Advanced Base Camp at over 21,000 feet.

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