Alpine Ascents Cho Oyu 2005: Chinese Base camp

The Team at Chinese Base camp

August 29- Chinese BC Tashi Delek once again-

It's Monday afternoon here at 16,000' in Tibet. Kevin, Mike, Suzanne and I are sitting comfortably in our BC tent enjoying the afternoon sun. We arrived here this morning after an epic drive yesterday from Shingatse to Tingri. The road is completely torn up between the town of Lhatse and Tingri. A massive project to pave the road from Lhasa to the border has been under way over the last couple of years and the Shigatse to Tingri portion is this year's mess of a road. Despite being not so smooth it was spectacular. Not only was the scenery spectacular but to view this construction project first hand is equally as fascinating.

So we pulled into Tingri last night at around 11 pm. We did get a bit of a late start around 9 am. The plan was to leave around 8:00 but one of our drivers had been out late at the bars and locked his keys in the car. He didn't realize this until we were about to leave and a hysterical scene followed. We had the dipstick stuck down the door panel trying to flip the lock along with other assorted items found behind the hotel parking lot. This morning we slept in a bit and then headed on to BC and arrived around noon Beijing time. We are now returning to Nepali time because it is more logical according to the daylight hours here.

The many sights of Shigatse were wonderful. We toured the Tashilunpho monastery, wandered the streets and Tibetan market area of Shigatse and ended the afternoon with rickshaw races through the busy streets. Don and Tony squeeked it out with some bush leaque tactics. After Tony held on to our rickshaw to take the lead the driver then held on tot he back of a tractor and guaranteed to the win. Back in the hotel in the late afternoon we were treated to an electric sky with rain, sun, thunderheads and bright cumulus clouds. The green hills behind the monastery sparkled. After a good meal and a couple more episodes of 'Arrested Development' it was off to bed.

We were literally the first people to arrive here in BC. It was quite a treat and a first for me. The liason officer hasn't even arrived yet though we are expecting him tomorrow. It's just our camp and it's wonderful if even just for the night. Our plan now is to stay here 3 nights getting used to the high altitude. We'll take some long hikes and then on Thursday start the 2 day hike to ABC which really acts as our real Base Camp.

We'll be in touch.

All the best, Dave

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