China, Tibet (So close to the clouds: Mt. Everest Base Camp)

November 5, 2010

Shortly after seven, Michael woke me up – sunrise was on its way. My pulse was still just as high as before, but I felt fantastic! Today we’re heading even higher. :)

Slowly the sun rose above the mountains and cast its light on the highest peak on earth.

It was a breathtaking sight. What would it look like right at Base Camp?

I quickly packed my stuff, said goodbye to my wonderfully warm duvet and looked forward to the rest of the drive. But once again, fate was doing everything it could to stop us from getting any closer to Mt. Everest.

Our jeep refused to start! The battery was completely dead and the other cars had already left. Laugh or cry - that was the question. Luckily there was one more jeep at Base Camp, which turned up after what felt like forever and gave us a jump start with what looked like doorbell wire. … *VROOM*, the engine came to life. Relieved, we jumped into the jeep and set off.

…we made it all of 50 meters before the car gave up again… Several more jump starts didn’t help – after just a few seconds the engine died again as if by magic. Our driver thought it was the fuses and busily swapped them back and forth. I tried to get across to him that this was definitely a problem with the alternator. But hey, I was only the tourist, not the driver…

Oh well, I left the gentlemen to their fuse swapping and took a few photos of the scene instead. Stuck at Mt. Everest with a broken jeep – unforgettable. :)
An hour later, they finally seemed to have found the problem. The bumpy ride on the way there had shaken a cable loose from the alternator, so it could no longer charge the battery, which is why the engine kept dying even though it was running. AHA!!! But what do I know, I’m just the clueless tourist…

Leaving Rongbuk Monastery behind us, we drove to the last outpost of Mt. Everest you can legally reach without being a professional mountaineer. When we arrived at Base Camp, we found a small border post. Our guide had to register us there and pay a fee – which also explained why he had wanted to keep the real Base Camp from us… Anyway, there were more important things now. We were allowed to walk up to a hill. Going any further was off-limits to mere mortals.

We slowly climbed the hill and the first thing we did was take a photo as proof. What a saga it had been just to get here: the police wanted to take our car off the road, our driver and guide tried all sorts of tactics to keep us away from Mt. Everest, the ticket office was closed, we only found out about the real Base Camp by pure chance, the jeep broke down again and again, and let’s not forget the physical strain of being at over 5,000 m. But in the end we had made it!

I was overcome with happiness. A little over two months earlier, on August 29, 2010, I had made a spur-of-the-moment trip up Germany’s highest mountain – the 2,980 m Zugspitze [see the flashback] – and now here I was at the highest mountain in the world, at Mt. Everest Base Camp, 5,545 m above sea level. Even now, thinking back on it: it’s incredible what moments life can give you.

Simply happy, I savored every second of it. I love life!

Further reading:

1. Flashback: Germany’s highest mountain (Climbing the Zugspitze) – travel report
2. Mt. Everest Base Camp – undreamt-of heights