Oct 19, 2014, Sunday – Mount Everest

Today we drove up to Everest climbers base camp (16,900 feet).  The drive was 48 miles, and took 2 ½ hours on very rough unpaved roads.  Much of the views were of dry, desolate valleys’ and foothills punctuated by spectacular mountain scenery. 

We were surprised at the amount of livestock we saw along the road...we were heading up to 17,000 feet.  You would think that there wouldn't be much for the animals to eat up there.

Yep.  That's a Yak. 

The day was crystal clear with not a cloud in sight around the mountain.  We could not have had better weather conditions to see the mountain.  Everest was magnificent.

Mt. Everest

The intrepid (and cold) Davis' with Everest in the background.

Everest with Prayer Flags in the Foreground

We had lunch at the Rongbuk Monastery Guest House where we met Erin and Adam again. 

The original plan was to stay overnight at the guest house and take sunrise pictures of Everest.  However there is no heat at the guest house, you had to go outside to get to the bathrooms (pit toilets), there was a possibility of snow that night, with a risk that we could be snowed in for a while, and the temperature must have been in the 20's F and would be below 0°F at night.  We decided that bragging rights for sleeping at the foot of Everest wasn’t worth freezing to death, so we drove back to Tingri for the night.

On the drive back we saw three Tibetan Gazelles (also called Goas).  They are an endangered species so we were very fortunate to get to see them.

Goas (Tibetan Gazelles)