On Oct 27 we spent the night at the Rongbok Monastery Guest House in Tibet. It is 5,000m above sea level and we felt like we were suffocating from lack of air. We took deep breaths and went to sleep then woke up from lack of oxygen and repeated the process all night. Fortunately we did not get headaches or nausea. Our room was not heated. It was clear and the stars were magnificent.
Next morning we drove up to the Everest Base Camp at sunrise and took some pictures. It was about minus 10C and a freezing cold wind was blowing off the mountain. I looked at Everest with 12x32 binoculars. When we returned to the van my hands were blue despite my gloves.
We were away for 5 weeks, 5 nights in Tokyo and the rest in China.
Sounds like a really memorable and thrilling experience. Lovely photo of what looks like the N face and NE ridge. The clarity of the overall scene is quite breathtaking.
Beautiful photo and an interesting tale. I found shortness of breath for a while in Switzerland Jungfraujoch mountain which was about 3,500 metres so 5000 seems extremely high. I thought the "kill zone" for parachutists and planes was around 5000 metres.
Beautiful photo and an interesting tale. I found shortness of breath for a while in Switzerland Jungfraujoch mountain which was about 3,500 metres so 5000 seems extremely high. I thought the "kill zone" for parachutists and planes was around 5000 metres.
