Just before dawn the clumping and chewing of yaks just outside our tent haunted us. Then dogs replaced the yaks and started fighting in our pasture. We stayed in the tent a lot longer than usual hoping the light rain would stop and also hoping the tent would warm up. The thermometer said 2 degrees C. When I finally emerged from the tent, wearing just about every piece of clothing I carried, I discovered it had snowed about an inch overnight.

The snow melted soon in the rain. We packed quickly while yaks looked on. Then we warmed up at the Monastery kitchen - a cozy cluttered place. We talked to a few other tourists over a long lingering breakfast of three large pancakes, three large chapatis, and tea, tea and more tea. The prices were rather high (relatively, that is), as you might expect at such a remote place, but the tea was free as long as you bought food.

The clouds broke up slightly before we left for the 8km ride to Everest Base Camp. Andy had told us that the road would be flat, which is just about the most absurd thing I have ever heard. We climbed 200m in that 8km on even more rocky, difficult road than the day before. (Joan: I guess it was flat to Andy, who must be a hell of a rider).

A creek chose a 50-meter section of the road as a bed. Joan went through first and almost at the end she got stuck in some big loose rocks and had to put her foot down in the icy water. Having cold wet boots and socks is bad news. It ruined her morning to say the least.

The ravine the road ascends is periodically blocked by glacial moraines. The road climbed the sides of these loose piles of rock and dirt in short steep switchbacks. These were the most difficult to climb and we always had to push over them.

While climbing one these we saw a herd of antelope running along the base of the steep hill to our left. The antelopes ran right across the difficult rocky terrain as if it were a grassy valley. When they saw us, they dashed up the steep hill and hid behind a small fold. When we passed the fold and could see where they had run, I couldn't find them. I don't know where they went or if the blended in so well they seemed invisible.

The road passed through a flat muddy place at the top of one of the moraines. The mud was very strange. I chose not to go in the deep tire tracks of the jeeps but go around in the harmless looking area to the left. I walked my bike and the mud had dried just enough that my boots or tires didn't sink in.

Joan was not so lucky. Even though her bike weighs less and has fatter tires, she sunk in. Then we discovered the peculiar aspect of the mud: it sticks to itself like fly paper. Once a little stuck to her tires, the tire pulled up a deep trench's worth. So much mud got stuck that in about 8 feet, a little more than one revolution, both wheels were completely jammed by the mud under the fenders and in the brakes! The mud caked just around the breaks was as big as a grapefruit on both sides and on both wheels. We had to take off all the bags and both wheels to clean up her bike. I played with the mud and discovered it behaved just like warm clay. You could make shapes and figures out of it.

The 8km from Rongbuk took an astonishing two hours, though this would not be the most difficult 8km we had in Tibet.

We finally arrived at EBC in early afternoon to find ... nobody around. Like Andy had said, EBC itself is just a bunch of rocks. We were disappointed. We wanted to meet some people.

I remember in the book "The Eiger Sanction" they talked about the Eiger Birds - rich people who stayed at a lodge during climbing season to watch the climbers. The climbers hated them because they thought they were just waiting for the excitement of someone falling to their death.

I was afraid we would be thought of the same way. I thought of climbers as a closed society where the members don't really like each other but like outsiders even less. They climb for their own ego and satisfaction. So I thought maybe it was just as well there were none around.

The "camp" itself is just a wider part of the ravine we had ascended. The valley is about 250 meters wide and a kilometer long. It's a rock floored with very little green around, just flat grey rocks. A stream meanders among the rocks. The sides of the valley are steep craggy mountains leading to snowy peaks.

A few glacier-deposited hills that look more like lumps in the wide valley were scattered about, some about 100 feet high making good view points. Some of the lumps were grassy.

One lump, protruding from mountains on the east side of the valley had a small building on top. When there are lots of expedition teams around the building rents rooms, sells noodles, tea, and beer, and you can even make phone calls back home with the satellite dish out back. But nothing was going on at all when we arrived.

The hill with the building and a pointy hill next to it blocked our view down the valley toward Everest. We excitedly climbed the pointy hill to a bunch of prayer flags on top to see the view: the valley led to a grey cloud concealing Everest. To the right side we could still see an attractively shaped pointy white peak which we thought might be Everest but it didn't quite seem big enough. About a kilometer up the valley we could see a couple army style tents and a Chinese truck parked in front but no activity. A cold wind blew intensely at us so we couldn't look long.

Below the building is the perfect camping area, also the only decent camping area around. It's a flat grassy spot, it's in the Lee of the hill, and it has a spring in the middle with very clear water. (The main stream through the valley is silty.)

We chose the least windy spot we could find even though it was near the base of a steep hill covered with loose rock. We just hoped no stones would roll down on our tent in the middle of the night.

While we setup camp and diddled around making lunch and so on, a few jeep tours drove up, looked at the grey cloud concealing the mountain, and left.

Next: Tibet Chapter 17 - Company Arrives at EBC

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