Hello Zoners. Dave here, it is the 30th of March, we got into Base Camp yesterday. Eric will write about getting into BC and getting started. I figure I'll just give you a bit about Nyalam to Tingri to the Pang La (the big pass on the final drive to Base Camp) and some pictures from that sequence.

Getting out of Nyalam after three days of light snow-fall was pretty easy when we got right down to it. The road was a little slick for the first couple of miles, and the penalty for slithering off the edge still seemed significant, but our driver was a pro and the snow petered out quickly as we worked up onto the plateau. Tsering stopped the bus on top of the Tsong La so we could check out the big view of Shishapangma (the 13th highest mountain in the world). The Tsong La was also a good place for us to feel the cold and wind of 17,000'. Made the bus seem kind of cozy as we piled back in. Then we were truly in Tibet, finally, and happy of it as we charged down the other side of the pass and on toward Tingri.

Tsering is like many drivers in these parts in that he likes to let a vehicle drift on a descent. But he is good at it, and so when our bus would get a few wheels in the air upon hitting some obstacle, we weren't alarmed. We were all getting fairly preoccupied with the place we were headed for. About an hour short of Tingri, we got the big view we'd been waiting for. Makalu, Everest, Giangchung Kang, and Cho Oyu were lined up across the still distant horizon. They each were dragging big holes in the sky but as usual, Everest was causing the most disturbance and had the biggest plume of cloud to show for it. We took a few pictures and said a few inadequate words about what a big deal Everest is. Those who hadn't seen the mountain up close before got an eyeful and worked at expressing that. The climbers on the team said less, aware that the significant talking would be done by Everest for the foreseeable future.

But first we needed a few acclimatization days in 14,300ft. Tingri. We pulled into our traditional haunt, The Everest View Hotel. Tingri is a pretty dirty, dusty, and often windy place. But it is getting better with the passing years. There are now a fair number of trekking and climbing groups passing along this Kathmandu to Lhasa road during the proper seasons and Tingri is working hard put its best foot forward to snag some of that easy money. We liked the food in Tingri, but we had to work hard at maintaining good mental health while there. No question, us low-landers needed two nights in town before heading the final six hours to basecamp and the high life, but we were getting antsy as heck to get to our home away from home. Everybody was nervous about getting sick in such a place at such a time. The extremely dry air sets one up for opportunistic germs. Add to that the physical challenge of these progressively higher places and you have a body capable of getting sick in a hurry. We hiked a little, but Eric tried hard to emphasize the importance of not overdoing the exercise. "We'll get plenty soon enough."

The Sherpas got theirs sooner than the rest of us as they went a day ahead with the trucks to get Base Camp started. This ability of theirs to work into these particular altitudes without great difficulty is extremely helpful to us. Setting up a Base Camp can not be done casually. The big winds that flow through the Rongbuk valley don't allow for half-pitched tents. Things have to be done right, and that means lifting up a lot of heavy things (rocks more often than not) to get anchored in right. The Sherpas getting a start on this would save us from some fierce headaches upon our own trip into basecamp.

The night before leaving Tingri, we loaded up a final truck with heavy barrels and boxes and then crawled into our little mud rooms for a final night in the civilized world. We were up before the sun and riding in the comfort of Toyota Landcruisers after a quick breakfast. The land started to emerge from the gloom, and we headed straight for a glorious sunrise. Eric described the scenery pretty accurately as resembling what one sees on a drive from Winnemucca to Elko. The Nevada resemblance ended in a flash as we hit the Pang La. The great pass at close to 18,000ft gave us the up close and personal view of Everest and a heck of a lot of other stunning Himalayas. But at that point we kept our eyes pretty steadily on the North Face of Mount Everest. It was a beautiful, cloud-free morning and the mountain was standing proud and quiet over everything. A loud and clear "Bring it on!!!" seemed to be coming from that direction. Fair enough, we got back in and heeded the call.

—Dave Hahn, Climber

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