At 5,200 meters (17,160 feet), Everest Base Camp is an incredible place, though it also gets really cold and windy. For our evening there during late fall, the temperature was somewhere near freezing during the day and dropping down to -11 C / 10 F during the night. The hotel also had some bad news for us, as almost all of the rooms had been booked by some Chinese government officials, so we were lucky to find anything, rather than having to stay in the cloth tents lining base camp. Our place was a small wooden attachment to the hotel, meaning that we had to walk about 20 yards outside on the balcony to get to the restaurant and bathroom from our room. This turned out to be a big problem, as our 77 year old traveller made frequent bathroom breaks during the night, and he knew that this arrangement wouldn't work for him. After a bit of complaining/negotiating with the manager, he was allowed to sleep on one of the benches/beds in the restaurant while Rami, Betty and I went for the room outside. Sleeping with my clothes and two big yak hair blankets, I was fine, though Betty didn't do so well. Up all night with a bit of a headache and bitter cold, she couldn't wait to get back to lower elevations and warmer weather.
On a happier note, as the afternoon went on, things started looking better and better. From our restaurant/sitting area, the massive windows gave us a view of the mountain, and all of us watched intently as the clouds slowly began to clear after an hour or two. Just about 30 minutes before the sun went down, we finally saw the peak, jutting into the sky at 8,848 meters (29,035 feet). The top of the mountain was obviously white with thick snow, covered most of the time by a small mist of snow blown around by the wind created in the valley below. Just being in this place was incredible and a feat in itself, but to see the mountain in all its glory was more than words could describe. To top it off, the sun began to set across from the mountain, creating a bit of an orange/pink glow on the white snow of the monstrous peak. With my ungloved hand freezing, I stood out on the balcony, snapping picture after picture and staring in awe at the changing colors atop the highest point in the world. I couldn't believe our luck to both be able to just see the mountain and now to see the sunset on such a clear night. I stayed out for as long as I could stand, watching the last bits of light leave the sky and the mountain. Much later on, around 3:30 in the morning, I awoke with an urge/need to go to the bathroom, though not wanting to leave the warmth of my bed to venture into the freezing night and back into the main building of the hotel. I eventually got my shoes on and made a run for it, but I was stopped in my tracks the moment I stepped outside. In front of me, there was a perfectly clear sky, not a single cloud in sight and thousands and thousands of stars, along with a bright moon, illuminating the white mountain like a ghost in the distance. The tranquility and beauty of it all was incredible, and I was so glad that I did get out of bed to witness such a magical night.
(We took a small bus from the hotel to the furthest point at base camp. And no, Rami was not drinking yak milk - that's lip balm because it is so dry there.)
(Wu, Betty and I enjoy the view while David contemplates robbing a bank, judging by his outfit.)
(The view from the balcony and the restaurant - one of the best hotel views that I've ever seen. Here you can almost see the peak...)
(There it is...mostly.)
(The behemoth himself, Senor Everest.)
(And then, for a magical 10 or so minutes, the sun began to set, setting off a string of different colors on the mountain.)
(Not a bad view.)
(And the snow was aflame with the late afternoon color. That doesn't even make sense.)
(And the final colors of the evening.)
(After the sun went down, with just a bit of light left in the sky, the winds on the summit seemed to calm a bit, lessening the white mist covering the top.)
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