Day 10. April,19. Shegar - Base Camp of Everest (BC, Base Camp)
Today we woke up a little earlier, got into the car and drove from Shegar to the base camp of Everest. Despite the fact that the distance is not too long - a little more than 100 km - the road took about 5 hours, including stops for a registration at the check-posts and video shooting.
The second part of the road is unpaved, but there are great repair works on it now, the bridges are being built, and maybe in a few years it will be possible to get to the base camp not only on jeep. The change of altitude is considerable - about 1 km; since all altimeters of expedition members were showing the different altitude values, we decided, that the altitude of the base camp is 5160 m above see level.
Everest showed itself almost immediately after we passed the unpaved road: it stands separately and looks much more significant and mighty from the north, rather than from the south, where only its 'head' can be seen. It is an incredibly majestic and beautiful sight - a huge black mountain with a little cloud above it.
We stopped for a photo- and video shooting at the most high-mountainous monastery of the world - Rongbuk Monastery, from which 8 km is left until the BC. Valdis made Kriska run errands, Sasha filmed the cloud above Everest, the members of the expedition took photos in different positions. Since the sun shined from the side of the Top of the World - the faces of those, who had been taking photos, reminded black spots against the background of bright-blue sky and snowy-black mass of Everest. I won't post it :)
The benefit of an ascent from the north side (Tibet, we are going from here) is that, despite the more severe conditions of the ascent itself, it is possible to get to the base camp by car, whereas from the south (Nepal) all the baggage you need to deliver on yaks. The simple fact of the road to the BC allows to equip the camp with necessary facilities better for the period of acclimatization, which takes about a month. During planning - how it is better to equip the expedition, how to organise the setting of middle and above camps - Bogomolov and I came to a unanimous conclusion to join the expedition of Aleksandr Abramov's company '7 summits'. We know him personally for a long time, we've heard a lot of good feedback from other members of the past expeditions to Everest, and in general we have no alternative. When organizing everyday camp life by yourself, the cost of services would be significantly higher, and the quality of service - lower, and the main thing is that the quality won't be as guaranteed as Abramov's. First, the effect of the scale works here, and second - Sasha's huge experience and relations - it is his 12th expedition to Everest.
That is why when we arrived, we were met by the crowd of sherpas and servicers of the '7 summits' team camp. The meeting was shot on camera, at the entrance to the camp all members of the expedition were instructed by the film crew on how should the members of an expedition act like, according to the scenario of their film. We had to play up a little to the guys, and the meeting became even better because of that, since it was almost on a diplomatic level: instead of grabbing the personal stuff and taking up the better tents, mountaineers ceremoniously greeted the staff of the camp, standing in a row and wearing the branded jackets.
After the camera was turned off, we had to grab our backpacks and stuff of course and to find an appropriate place for accommodation. The members of the '7 summits' expedition are staying in the comfortable single tents, which stand in rows. Apparently, I have to devote a separate description to an organisation of every-day camp life - after it will be clear, how the every-day life is organised here. At first sight the camp makes a good impression - it's hard to believe that it is possible to live in the foothills of mount Everest in such comfortable conditions. By the way, today we've switched to a Nepal time for the comfortable working of expedition - 2 hours 15 minutes back.
After lunch we were engaged in unpacking and placing things inside the tent. It turned out to be wonderful - there is a lot of space to sleep, work and rest. But, according to the practice of my previous ascents - the work doesn't go well at such altitude. Whatever... There will be plenty of free time and I need to occupy it with something. For my free time occupation I have: several volumes of Russian classic books - Herzen and Dostoyevsky, five notebooks of quotations, whch I took from the works of different authors - for comprehension and reflection (they are printed with a small font size), 600 spanish words, printed on cards, and one micro book of Idries Shah 'Tales of the Dervishes' which was presented to me a few years ago on my birthday by Lesha Burtsev and by Sanya Stulnikov, who untimely passed away in autumn of 2014. When they were presenting this book to me, Sanya said something like that: ' You go to mountains and love to read, but the books are heavy - so here is a lightweight book for you for the ascents'. And now it is here, under Everest...
And also I have a computer, so I can work and write posts for a blog...
Twenty minutes ago the sun dipped behind the surrounding rocks, and the temperature in the tent immediately fell from +25 C to +12 C. It is quite cold already, I have to wear a down-padded jacket. And Sergey has finished all his unpackings and invites me to go for an acclimatization walk immediately. so I finish writing, we are off for a walk!
Today we woke up a little earlier, got into the car and drove from Shegar to the base camp of Everest. Despite the fact that the distance is not too long - a little more than 100 km - the road took about 5 hours, including stops for a registration at the check-posts and video shooting.
The second part of the road is unpaved, but there are great repair works on it now, the bridges are being built, and maybe in a few years it will be possible to get to the base camp not only on jeep. The change of altitude is considerable - about 1 km; since all altimeters of expedition members were showing the different altitude values, we decided, that the altitude of the base camp is 5160 m above see level.
Everest showed itself almost immediately after we passed the unpaved road: it stands separately and looks much more significant and mighty from the north, rather than from the south, where only its 'head' can be seen. It is an incredibly majestic and beautiful sight - a huge black mountain with a little cloud above it.
We stopped for a photo- and video shooting at the most high-mountainous monastery of the world - Rongbuk Monastery, from which 8 km is left until the BC. Valdis made Kriska run errands, Sasha filmed the cloud above Everest, the members of the expedition took photos in different positions. Since the sun shined from the side of the Top of the World - the faces of those, who had been taking photos, reminded black spots against the background of bright-blue sky and snowy-black mass of Everest. I won't post it :)
The benefit of an ascent from the north side (Tibet, we are going from here) is that, despite the more severe conditions of the ascent itself, it is possible to get to the base camp by car, whereas from the south (Nepal) all the baggage you need to deliver on yaks. The simple fact of the road to the BC allows to equip the camp with necessary facilities better for the period of acclimatization, which takes about a month. During planning - how it is better to equip the expedition, how to organise the setting of middle and above camps - Bogomolov and I came to a unanimous conclusion to join the expedition of Aleksandr Abramov's company '7 summits'. We know him personally for a long time, we've heard a lot of good feedback from other members of the past expeditions to Everest, and in general we have no alternative. When organizing everyday camp life by yourself, the cost of services would be significantly higher, and the quality of service - lower, and the main thing is that the quality won't be as guaranteed as Abramov's. First, the effect of the scale works here, and second - Sasha's huge experience and relations - it is his 12th expedition to Everest.
That is why when we arrived, we were met by the crowd of sherpas and servicers of the '7 summits' team camp. The meeting was shot on camera, at the entrance to the camp all members of the expedition were instructed by the film crew on how should the members of an expedition act like, according to the scenario of their film. We had to play up a little to the guys, and the meeting became even better because of that, since it was almost on a diplomatic level: instead of grabbing the personal stuff and taking up the better tents, mountaineers ceremoniously greeted the staff of the camp, standing in a row and wearing the branded jackets.
After the camera was turned off, we had to grab our backpacks and stuff of course and to find an appropriate place for accommodation. The members of the '7 summits' expedition are staying in the comfortable single tents, which stand in rows. Apparently, I have to devote a separate description to an organisation of every-day camp life - after it will be clear, how the every-day life is organised here. At first sight the camp makes a good impression - it's hard to believe that it is possible to live in the foothills of mount Everest in such comfortable conditions. By the way, today we've switched to a Nepal time for the comfortable working of expedition - 2 hours 15 minutes back.
After lunch we were engaged in unpacking and placing things inside the tent. It turned out to be wonderful - there is a lot of space to sleep, work and rest. But, according to the practice of my previous ascents - the work doesn't go well at such altitude. Whatever... There will be plenty of free time and I need to occupy it with something. For my free time occupation I have: several volumes of Russian classic books - Herzen and Dostoyevsky, five notebooks of quotations, whch I took from the works of different authors - for comprehension and reflection (they are printed with a small font size), 600 spanish words, printed on cards, and one micro book of Idries Shah 'Tales of the Dervishes' which was presented to me a few years ago on my birthday by Lesha Burtsev and by Sanya Stulnikov, who untimely passed away in autumn of 2014. When they were presenting this book to me, Sanya said something like that: ' You go to mountains and love to read, but the books are heavy - so here is a lightweight book for you for the ascents'. And now it is here, under Everest...
And also I have a computer, so I can work and write posts for a blog...
Twenty minutes ago the sun dipped behind the surrounding rocks, and the temperature in the tent immediately fell from +25 C to +12 C. It is quite cold already, I have to wear a down-padded jacket. And Sergey has finished all his unpackings and invites me to go for an acclimatization walk immediately. so I finish writing, we are off for a walk!
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