Tibet Tour April/May 2001 |
Section 5: Mt. Everest
April and May are the best months to visit the Mt. Everest (8848 m), in Tibetan
language called Qomolangma. It is now possible, to drive all the way to the Mt.
Everest Base Camp with a jeep, and a bigger road is already in preparation.
Mt. Everest from Rongphu Monastery
The Rongphu monastery is the highest monastery in Tibet, and thus the world, at
4980 m. All visitors to the Everest region have to spent the night in the
guesthouse of the monastery. From here, it is only a two hours walk to the Mount
Everest Basecamp.
Mifang with Yak
Tibetans rely on yak milk for cheese, as well as butter for the famous yak
butter tea or for butter lamps in monasteries. Yak butter tea is generally rated
as one of the worst drinks on our planet.
Group photo at Rongphu
with Mt. Everest in the background. From left to right: Wolfgang, Mifang, Zhou,
Carina and Thomas
Basecamp
The Mount Everest Base Camp is located 5200 m above sea level between the
moraines of the Rongphu Glacier. The path further onwards follows continues at
the left side of the moraine in the background and follows the Glacier to
the Advanced base camp (ABC) at 6000 m. But we finished our trip already after a
few kilometers at an altitude of 5300 m and returned for the last days of our
vacation to Lhasa.
Links:
Mt. Everest panorama view (Roddy Mackenzie in NASA archives)
© Wolfgang Schaefer, Seoul, 2003-2005; last update: May 21, 2005