Updates From Everest Tumpach One Eye of the Official Thurday, September 4, 1997 (Everest North Face base camp, Tibet) Temperature in base camp today at 2pm local is 82F (27C). It is overcast and clears every 5-10 minutes. As I mentioned in my earlier e-mail, the weather changes here every minute. This afternoon Mt.EVEREST is hiding behind the clouds. Two of the Colombian team members left back to ABC, the rest of the team will follow them in two days. The Spanish team will go back to ABC tomorrow and try to go for the SUMMIT ATTACK. The rest of the team is resting and acclimatizing. The EVEREST CASINO — Highest Casino in the world — opened at 10am today and we had several yak men join in the gambling. They take it very seriously and they do gamble for the money. My three team Sherpas went today to RONGBUK Monastery to pray for good luck, good health and a successful trip to the SUMMIT of EVEREST. Tomorrow morning one of the monks from the monastery will come to base camp and perform a BUDDHIST Ceremony for our CANADIAN TEAM. During the ceremony we will hang praying flags which we bought in Kathmandu and have them blesed by LAMA. On the right side of the base camp, on a small hill are two little stupas and on left side just on the side of our camp site is another small STUPA, where we will have the ceremony. This ceremony is very important to Sherpa people, especially when we go to climb the Qomolangma — MOTHER of the UNIVERSE. We are going to be leaving for ABC on Sept. 9 with 14 yaks and two yak men. I have spoken to them today and they are very interesting people. I will tell you more about their lives tomorrow. Now, let me tell you more about our trip from the Village of Tingri to base camp. After we reached the turn off point on Friendship Highway, 50 km from Tingri, we virtually drove into the TIBETAN plato. From the turn of the road to the base camp of EVEREST is 90km of hard ,dusty, bumpy trail, the locals call "ROAD." This road took us through several TIBETAN villages tucked between the hills for protection from High winds and always located by the river valley. The people are mostly farmers growing wheat, potatoes and having goats, sheep and yak herds. The first village we came to is LUNGJHANG, where the check point to the Qomolangma Region is. Then we continue to drive in the field of rocks and boulders. Somehow the locals managed to carve the road through the side of the hill which led us to the LAMNA-LA PASS 5150m (17000’). From this point we had the first clear view of Mt. Everest; the sky was clear. On the other side of the PASS we had a spectacular view of the valley and the road descent down into it- back to 14200’ to the river valley, where there are several villages - Pheru, Tashidum , Pasum and CHOSUM. When you drive through, you see many Tibetan people working on the road to keep it driveable because in rainy season it is continuously washing out in many places. You’re virtually driving on a million-year-old glacial moraine. After we passed the last village, the road got even worse. Only 4x4s and big trucks can pass through and after several more kilometers of rough riding, you all of a sudden end up at a famous RONGBUK Monastery. At this point, I felt goose bumps on my body. It is a magical feeling that you are finally here — 15 minutes drive or 2 hours walk to the base camp of EVEREST. We stopped at RONGBUK MONASTERY to take photographs and to pay respect to the MOTHER of UNIVERSE — MT. QOMOLANGMA. In front of the monastery is a large STUPA with the praying wheel, which each of us spun and wished the best for the all team. Today there are only 12 MONKS and 24 NUNS living in the monastery and one keeper/manager. In the older days when TIBET was independent, Rongbuk monastery flourished. There have been between 500 to 800 monks at a time depending on the time of the year. Rongbuk monastery was established in 1902 by NYINGMAPA LAMA. It is the highest monastery not only in TIBET, but in the world. Tourists traveling today to see the base camp of Mt EVEREST can find lodging at the monastery. Many tourists traveling troughout Tibet have to be on guided tours with a Chinese liaison officer, tour guide and interpreter. Tours usually start at LHASA, where you can choose to go to different destinations for a specific time limit. To travel independently in Tibet is impossible. Even for us mountain climbers everything outside of base camp is restricted and traveling from the border to the Everest base camp is under the watchful eye of a liaison officer from TMA or CMA. Satellite telephones in TIBET are prohibited with exceptions for Expeditions and it takes a lot of paper work and presentations to Chinese officials for their permission — and a nominal fee of $2000. This fee is against the INTERNATIONAL Telecommunication Treaty, but Chinese authorities make their own rules: NO PAY, NO TELEPHONE. SO, you have no choice, actually the way they deal with us after they take our $2000 is to consider us to be lucky they let us bring the phones. The Nepali authorities are not any different. We must pay for a sat-phone in Nepal also and, if you have a visa for Expedition to Tibet, the phones are sealed all the way to the border and the base camp. The two-way radios for our communications on the mountain are also a difficult task with Chinese officials. I have one very important piece of advice for anyone planning to visit BEAUTIFUL TIBET! When you enter Tibet do not show cameras or video cameras on the border or at any of many police check points while traveling. The minute the soldier or policemen sees you taking photos, you will, if you’re lucky, lose the film and if you come across somebody who is locking for a promotion, you lose the camera. This happened here in Tibet many times — do not think you can fool them as they are checking your papers — one eye of the official watches every one. I grew up in a so called "COMMUNIST REGIME" controlled then by the SOVIETS and I know this system and the fear they try to impose on the people and the tourists. I know their system of intimidation. The soldiers are so intimidating from the fear of their superiors. I had a experience with Chinese policemen in the village of Nylam. I had to make a important phone call and it was raining so I did not want to go on the roof of the local hotel because I would get wet. I decided to go down to the corner of the street, where the balcony hung over the entry to the building where there is excellent exposure to the direction in the sky to reach the satellite. As I am having a conversation, a uniformed policeman comes by shouting, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" I looked at him and asked him if he could see, it was dark, close to midnight. This time he was yelling the same question. I calmly told him "Can’t you see? I am talking on the phone and you are interrupting my conversation." This time he started in Chinese and all I could understand was the word "PASSPORT." I had to hang up because he was grabbing my telephone. The phone we are using is only a few months old, it is the latest technology and is smaller than a lap top computer. The poor guy did not know what I had. He had never seen anything like it and he thought I was some kind of spy. He was yelling at me and all I understood as "PASSPORT" and at the same time he was trying to grab my $6000 phone. I would not let him and I started demanding to see his superior. The unfortunate thing was that I did not have a passport on me; I left it in the hotel and the fortunate thing was I had an OFFICIAL PRESS PASS. I found myself in the situation I was in many times back in Czechoslovakia with the SOVIET soldiers. One thing I learned — YOU DO NOT SHOW THE FEAR and you have to be as aggressive or more to intimidate him. It worked with the SOVIETS and it worked with the Chinese guy. He followed me to the hotel. We woke half the hotel up shouting at each other, and when I finally found my passport and he checked it and confirmed it with my Press ID, then he apologized and wished us all good luck. There was four of us in the room and he woke everyone up. In the end, we shook hands and as he was leaving he was apologizing. My cameramen and two Spanish climbers did not know what happened. It was a good experience for them. Right now it is 11pm local time . It was raining this evening and temperature right now is 35F (7C) outside and 43F (8C) in the tent. — George Tumpach PREVIOUS UPDATE | UPDATES HOME | NEXT UPDATE