Day 39 – Going 5.289 m (17.350 ft) and till the end of the road!

By bogaert

Today was a big day! At 9:00 I was already at the Tashilhunpo Monastery, which was build by the first Dalia Lama in the 15th century, and one of the few monasteries that survived the Cultural Revolution. A nice monastery, many beautiful small shrines, and crowded with pilgrims!

After the monastery visit I applied for an Everest Climb Permit. The odds to get one were very low and as expected, it was refused due to the poor weather conditions. The road to the Everest is still closed after the snow sleds four weeks ago where western tourists died. The answer was clear: ‘maybe next week or the week after’. A group of western tourists also tried to obtain a permit and were very irritated with the unclear answer. They wanted to go at any risk. Seeing the clothing of other foreigners walking around I even don’t think they knew what they were going to face at the base of Mount Everest. The current outside temperature at 5200m is -15°C, definitely not a place to go without proper clothing. It is clear to me; Chinese government will take no risk at all with tourists. I doubt the road will be reopened before spring. Those irritated group of tourists might passed their midlife crisis and willing to take any risk, but I understand the risk of mountains, altitude, and weather. I feel far too young to take such risk. I knew since weeks that the odds to get a permit were low, in particular traveling this time of the year. My dream does not totally become truth. But it is dry, cold, no clouds, blue skies. It is the best season to enjoy the views and take photos. During summer it is much easier to obtain a permit for Mount Everest, but then it is mostly cloudy and very haze.

The permits are added to the Alien Travel Permit and apply for the group. In my case I do not have to arguer with the rest of my group. Being my own group, I only have to agree with myself. That makes life simple! So, upon advice of my guide he applied permits near Mount Everest, both were promising good viewpoints. I have no other options; the way of traveling with those permits makes me totally dependent on him. Wearing proper mountain clothing, paid 350 RMB (42 Euro / 57 USD), with granted permits attached to my Alien Travel Permit, I was ready to go! It took hours of driving to get there … but along the road I enjoyed the amazing views. We reached the first summit Gyatso-la of 5.289m (higher than Everest Base Camp). It was freaking cold outside, but my down clothes kept me nicely warm. It was awesome to walk up to 5.289m with both feed on the ground! This was the highest point of my journey!

Many checkpoints later we arrived at the second summit, with a great view on the Mount Everest and the mountains around. It is still far away to the Mount Everest, very ashamed we did not make it closer. We stayed a while, until dark began to fall. The checkpoints on the road are very strict, precise verification of all the documents prior to going further. No way of getting closer to Mount Everest than my current permits. The views are great, impossible to describe!

We drove further west towards the border with Nepal. At 22:15 we reached the village of Zhangmu, a small town at the border between Tibet and Nepal. This is the furriest point of my travel! Tomorrow starts my return trip, first drive 850 km back east towards Lhasa on road G318, also known as the ‘Friendship Highway’. It is the road that connects Shanghai with the border of Nepal. This ‘Highway’ is not an ‘autobahn’; its name comes from being a high altitude road. With an average speed of less than 40 km/h it will take two days of driving back to Lhasa.

I stayed at a small place in Zhangmu, a cold room, luckily very clean. It was late. I felt tired and sneaked into my down sleeping bag.

Tashilhunpo Monastery