The final word has come. Chomolungma, aka Sagarmartha, aka Mt Everest is officially and formally being closed on the north side in Tibet.

It’s over.

Before we’ll get much time to process what that means to the group, to ourselves and to our Sherpa climbing partners, we need to figure out what’s next. How or when are the Sherpa getting home to their families in the Khumbu. With the Kathmandu airport still being closed to any inbound commercial flights, we’re not sure how the Sherpa would get home any time soon.

As for us, we still haven’t been given a date of when we will be in Lhasa. The CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association) have closed the road between basecamp and any external cities. We will be told when we can leave, and the CTMA will arrange our travel out to Lhasa. From there, we are on our own to get out. Given all that, I suspect we’ll be in basecamp at least for a few more days before going anywhere. Then, it’ll be a mad rush to try and arrange flights out of China.

Fortunately, I have my passport and some cash. Unfortunately, my wallet with my credit cards and travel clothes are all in Kathmandu and there is no way to get it. Contextually, leaving behind some clothes and a wallet is absolutley a non issue. Just a minor, temporary hassle.

On to the next adventure of getting out of here, getting home and figuring out how else I can help in Nepal and moving on.