Last night we got to Shigatze/Xigazê on our way back to Lhasa.  It looks like we’ll fly back through Kathmandu which sucks because that city doesn’t need any more people consuming resources. 

On to Lhasa! 

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.

After having our Puja, the team including our Sherpa were excited and pumped up for the trip again. Everyone was in high spirits, that is until the second earth quake (aftershock) hit the area. Of course, once we established that everyone in basecamp was safe, we quickly turned our thoughts to friends on the south side of Everest and of course in Kathmandu.

Yesterday evening we got the news that the CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association) is going to shut down the mountain. They claim that scientists in Beijing have predicted a massive earthquake to hit the region in the next 10-14 days. Contrary to the USGS whom say predicting an earthquake with any real certainty is impossible. The USGS is forcasting the probability of more earth quakes, however, they aren’t as specific with times or intensities.
Allegedly the head of the CTMA is coming to basecamp tomorrow (was supposed to be today) to have a meeting with all the groups to give us the final decision. It seems inevitable, but I suppose there is still a miniscule chance that we could still climb.

In the spirit of keeping that hope alive, we went on a hike up to 18,600ft to get the blood flowing and continue with the acclimitization in the event we should be able to keep climbing.

We’re all doing well today after a rather disappointing evening last night. We’re trying to keep from focusing on the trip being over and instead think about the successive camps & route technicalities. It still is a possibillity, however dim it may seem.

Thanks for all the support – we’ll keep everyone posted.

Yesterday we had our Puja ceremony which was conducted by a monk from the Rong Pu Monastery just a few miles away from basecamp. A Puja ceremony is very special to the Sherpa as it is the time that the group gets its blessing and permission for safe passage on the mountain. It roughly consists of the monk reciting prayers in Tibetn for about an hour in front of the shrine which had earlier been built by the Sherpa this season. Towards the end of the ceremony, the rest of the group gets involved by throwing rice into the sky asking for blessings. Everyone then gets a handful of flour smacked in their face for good measure and a hug for good luck and good climbing.

It was nice to have a moment of reflection during the Puja with our Sherpa climbing partners especially in light of what’s going on in Nepal at the moment.

We’ve definitely been shaken by the earthquakes which have been felt from India to China in addition to the devastation & destruction they have caused in Nepal. The south side of Mt. Everest has officially been shut down by the Nepalese government, marking the second season in which the mountain has been shut down due to mother nature having different plans. Shortly after the shaking stopped the first time, we heard the chaos of coordinating rescue, recovery & trauma facilities being built out of dining tents and whatever was available. It was so scary to sit and listen and not be able to do a single thing to help. We all are feeling so horrible for our friends & Sherpa family on the south side.

Along with the rest of the world, we’ve also been getting direct & indirect reports of the goings on in Kathmandu. For anyone who has been to Kathmandu, you can understand that it wouldn’t take much to cause massive carnage. In the last 48hrs, Kathmandu has seen two extremely large earthquakes which are testing the ability of the city, country and neighboring country’s response times for relief. Please, take a moment and dontate to the relief effort in any way that you feel good about. Nepal is simply not set up to handle anything like this and the death toll will only continue to climb in the coming days.

We all are very fortunate to be where we are, relatively speaking, as the Tibet side of Everest has remained relatively unscathed. Even as we wait to understand what the plan for climbing will be, we’re safe and unharmed. We’re just thinking of friend and acquaintances in Nepal and wishing we could do anything to help.

Again, I want to thank everyone whom have expressed concern for our safety both directly and indirectly. It was a bit overwhelming to see the volume of love & inquiry. Thank you to everyone keeping tabs on us. Thanks for all those who called Mary Beth and my family to make sure they were ok too. Thank you.

UPDATE

There has been a 7.7 earthquake about 50 miles from Kathmandu. We felt it here for sure but we are all safe. Waiting to hear from the south side of Everest. 
After a bumpy 4hr ride, we made it into Everest basecamp!  

While sitting down for lunch, there was an earthquake that hit the mountain. We are all safe and no damage to base camp.  There was a bit of rock fall, but everyone is ok. 

Will update more later. 

Well, the plan was to make it to basecamp today, but the weather gods had other plans. Apparently with the dirt road into basecamp not being in awesome shape, our “tour guide” did not want to drive in the dark on muddy roads in mini-vans. What a wuss!!!

As a result, we stopped in a town called Tingri, which everyone in the group whom had been here before was not happy about it. Apparently it’s been quite the dump of a town in the past. Call it luck, call it what you want, we ended up in the “new” building of the hotel which means we have nicer beds and a bathroom. The plumbing leaves something to be desired, but I’m not complaining about another night in a bed.

With an early start tomorrow we should hopefully be to basecamp by lunch!

Today we went to the Potola Palace which has functionally become a museum since 1980, but for many centuries had the Dalai Lama living there and was also a central point of government in Tibet. It was a very special place and I’m glad we were able to check it out prior to hopping in the van for the day. We saw the tombs of the 5th, 7th & 8th Dalai Lama, which were encrusted in gold and had loads of precious gems as well to send him into the next life with riches.

Also, on our way in, we randomly stopped at this store on the side of the road that was making incense from scratch. They had these water powered machines which were grinding tree stumps down into a paste that they then formed into incense. The stuff sells pretty expensively the further away you get as they regularly use it at monasteries. We got bundles for basically $10, which was a “deal” allegedly

We just pulled into Shigatze which will be our final stop before we head into Basecamp tomorrow. Today was about 7hrs in the mini-van at 25mph… Apparently a bus full of tourists went off the road last year and killed 30 people. As a result, they’ve change the speed limit to 25mph. To make sure you recognize these times, they time you between each of the police check points. If you reach the checkpoint too soon, you get a fine and points on your record. Naturally, people find a loophole and speed at 70mph between checkpoints, and just stop about 5 minutes before it to have a break.

Tomorrow I think we’ll be cruising for about 10hrs, 3-4 of which will be on a dirt road into basecamp. Hopefully the snow has melted and the road isn’t too muddy as we aren’t in the typical Jeeps that most people take in.

Made it to Lhasa today.  The construction is insane. I haven’t seen so many cranes anywhere.  They are trying to build it out as fast as they can get people to move in.  Which, apparently, they lift the one child policy if you immigrate here from the rest of China. 

Had a great dinner with the team tonight.  Now off to bed and we’ll check out the Potola Palace tomorrow which used to be a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. 

Good times!!