Dave Hahn

The journey to base camp then proceeded in relative ease. We sent the trucks ahead with the Sherpas for whom base camp heights are no big deal. They, and we, were anxious to get a foothold on the mountain. We needed to proceed at a slightly slower pace, spending one more night in another dirty but beautiful town of Xegar [Click for map] at 14,000'. This was after a day of amazing views from the 16,000'. pass alongside Xixipangma, more frequehtly called Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world that a few of us had a little history with but no summit.

And then the classic North side views of Cho Oyu (sixth highest) and Everest, mountains we'd all had a few lifetimes of experiences with. These were easily seen from the town of Tingri where we met our trekking group, they were enjoying delays of their own but were making good use of the time by hiking and exploring. The Tibetan Plateau is high, very dry, pretty well clear of vegetation. It reminds one of the great basins of California and Nevada.

Traveling through small villages where life is obviously still quite simple, hard and short in a comfortable Toyota Landcruiser with the windows rolled up may seem like an odd way to experience the world, but it is a recommended way of getting to the base of the highest mountain in the world with health intact. The dirt, dust and dryness inhaled along the way have cut many a climber's trip short. There are some great moments to the last day's ride to camp, particularly when a team is lucky enough to go over the Pang La [Click for map] at over 17,000 feet on a clear day. The view of five 8000 meter peaks is tremendous and unique, usually a fair bit of film gets burned before the pass is crossed.

The journey into the North Side has gotten easier and quicker in just the last ten years, all of our guides can remember riding on top of loaded trucks with sleeping bags and dust masks as protection against the elements, arriving in base camp bruised and exhausted. Then we'd dive into the work of establishing base camp which essentially involves hauling big rocks and boxes around. A great way to introduce one's self to 16,900'. We were spared the worst of the work this year by the amount already accomplished by the Sherpas under Panuru, our Sirdar. In just a day and a half, they'd substantially reduced the headaches the rest of us would need to endure for the first night in base camp.

It may seem odd that one drives to Everest base camp, although it may be easier to understand why when you consider how far you must drive from base camp to actually get anywhere. In any case, we'd made it to the Rongbuk Glacier by the 12th of April and were ready to begin the next phase of our climb.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

DISPATCHES

COMPLETE INDEX OF DISPATCHES