It turned out that our last night in Kathmandu was Nepali New Years Eve so we set out 1 January 2068 (Nepali years) although I still haven't managed to find out what year zero signifies. The bus used for our early morning trip to the border had no suspension and brakes that sounded like they'd not been oiled for quite some time. The road itself is pretty interesting and has featured in the lists of the 'World's Ten Worst Roads', mostly on account of the winds that swirl around it and the general surface condition. However, the locals are nothing if not resourceful and they get around this by driving up the middle of the road and honking their horn to warn oncoming traffic. A little unorthodox but seems to work ! I wasn't too worried as I've shared a few car journeys with Jarrod and am still here to tell the tale.
This is the third time I have made this journey in the past couple of years and after a losing a wheel on the way to Cho Oyu and suffering a puncture last year it was nice to make it to the border unscathed this time. However the Iceland team (the other UK team on the North Side of Everest this season) were not so lucky and they lost a bus full of supplies down a ravine a couple of days earlier, killing the driver and nearly ending their expedition. We saw the bus as we drove past and it was completely destroyed.
The border crossing across the Friendship Bridge was trouble free, aside from the usual Chinese bureaucracy which meant that every single bag was emptied and searched, as usual they seemed more interested in reading material than anything else. Once over the border we are in the hands of the CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association). They pick us up at the border and drop us off at base camp as part of our climbing permit. In between they tell us where we stay, what we eat and where we go.
Right over the border we were in a Chinese town Zhangmu which was perched on the side of the hill and was a typical frontier town - not very charming lots of shady characters and dubious establishments the CTMA informed us we would be spending the night here.
Tibet is on Beijing time (we stayed on Nepali time) so we set off very early the next morning, the first thing that you notice in China is the markers denoting the distance to Beijing every km. These reminders plus the military checkpoints you pass through leave you in little doubt as to who is in charge here. The road up to the Tibetan plateau is superb. When I first came through a couple of years ago the new road was incomplete and there were tents on the roadside for the workmen to live in but now it is complete, I have no idea how many people died in the construction but it is a fantastic feat of Chinese engineering and a real contrast to the Nepali side.
Once on the Tibetan plateau itself the landscape becomes much more barren. We swapped our bus for Land Cruisers at the border so we made swift progress through Nylam and Tingri. Unfortunately in Nylam we learnt that the leader of the Adventure Peaks Everest North Col/Lhakpa Ri expedition, who had been acclimatising in Tibet and will be sharing base camp with us, has been attacked by wild dogs in Nylam and will have to return to the border to get himself checked out. Wild dogs are a real problem in these places and I have always carried a walking pole to fend them off but it sounds like he was attacked by a pack and could do nothing about it.
After a long day in the car driving through Tibet, with most of us avoiding Tibetan food and water after one of last years team is thought to have contracting Hepatitis E here, we finally arrived at base camp. At around 5150m above sea level base camp is over 300m higher than Mont Blanc and we would not drop below here until our way out in late May/ early June. We had also seen our last tree and buildings for weeks but at least had the consolation of waking up to a magnificent view of Mount Everest every morning.
We have been at Base Camp for a couple of days now, quite a few team members are sick (I am fine so far) so we have had to alter our schedule. A few of us walked up to 5500m this morning and we should move onto 6000m in the next few days. While we are still on schedule, some of us are not convinced the revised is aggressive enough as a few days bad weather could cause problems so will have to keep an eye on this continue to try and push where possible. Over and out !! Take care all
This is the third time I have made this journey in the past couple of years and after a losing a wheel on the way to Cho Oyu and suffering a puncture last year it was nice to make it to the border unscathed this time. However the Iceland team (the other UK team on the North Side of Everest this season) were not so lucky and they lost a bus full of supplies down a ravine a couple of days earlier, killing the driver and nearly ending their expedition. We saw the bus as we drove past and it was completely destroyed.
The border crossing across the Friendship Bridge was trouble free, aside from the usual Chinese bureaucracy which meant that every single bag was emptied and searched, as usual they seemed more interested in reading material than anything else. Once over the border we are in the hands of the CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association). They pick us up at the border and drop us off at base camp as part of our climbing permit. In between they tell us where we stay, what we eat and where we go.
Right over the border we were in a Chinese town Zhangmu which was perched on the side of the hill and was a typical frontier town - not very charming lots of shady characters and dubious establishments the CTMA informed us we would be spending the night here.
Tibet is on Beijing time (we stayed on Nepali time) so we set off very early the next morning, the first thing that you notice in China is the markers denoting the distance to Beijing every km. These reminders plus the military checkpoints you pass through leave you in little doubt as to who is in charge here. The road up to the Tibetan plateau is superb. When I first came through a couple of years ago the new road was incomplete and there were tents on the roadside for the workmen to live in but now it is complete, I have no idea how many people died in the construction but it is a fantastic feat of Chinese engineering and a real contrast to the Nepali side.
Once on the Tibetan plateau itself the landscape becomes much more barren. We swapped our bus for Land Cruisers at the border so we made swift progress through Nylam and Tingri. Unfortunately in Nylam we learnt that the leader of the Adventure Peaks Everest North Col/Lhakpa Ri expedition, who had been acclimatising in Tibet and will be sharing base camp with us, has been attacked by wild dogs in Nylam and will have to return to the border to get himself checked out. Wild dogs are a real problem in these places and I have always carried a walking pole to fend them off but it sounds like he was attacked by a pack and could do nothing about it.
After a long day in the car driving through Tibet, with most of us avoiding Tibetan food and water after one of last years team is thought to have contracting Hepatitis E here, we finally arrived at base camp. At around 5150m above sea level base camp is over 300m higher than Mont Blanc and we would not drop below here until our way out in late May/ early June. We had also seen our last tree and buildings for weeks but at least had the consolation of waking up to a magnificent view of Mount Everest every morning.
We have been at Base Camp for a couple of days now, quite a few team members are sick (I am fine so far) so we have had to alter our schedule. A few of us walked up to 5500m this morning and we should move onto 6000m in the next few days. While we are still on schedule, some of us are not convinced the revised is aggressive enough as a few days bad weather could cause problems so will have to keep an eye on this continue to try and push where possible. Over and out !! Take care all
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