Today was a 'rest day', which is to say that following a considerable height gain yesterday and in preparation for a big gain tomorrow we stayed in Baibi for a second night to enable us to properly acclimatise. However you shouldn't confuse the term 'rest' with doing nothing.
This morning we climbed over 300m to the top of the nearby Shegar hill fort, a magnificent although now ruined fort of tall turrets linked by a wall set on a very steep mountainside. in its prime the fort would have commanded the Xegar valley and given protection to the Buddhist monastery that stands at its foot.
We were highly privileged to be permitted to visit the monastery and were shown around by senior monks. Once through the ornate ochre coloured entranceway we were shown through a courtyard where monks were at work to the inner sanctum. All lighting was by candle and the air was redolent with the aroma of wax and animal fats. Through the gloom we could make out hundreds, even thousands, of statues and other figures adorned in golden, red, and other brilliant colours. While steeped in history and maintained in a very traditional way the monks are not isolated from the real world. We were shown pictures of other parts of the monastery by a monk on his iPad and when we were leaving the monastery the monks that had previously been working in the courtyard were now at leisure and several had mobile phones. To be allowed into such a special place was as marvellous as it was unusual.
On Sunday we shall travel to Chinese base camp where we shall stay for a few days training and further acclimatising before moving to the mountain base camp, known as ABC - advance base camp. Once at Chinese base camp while I will lose telephone contact the mountain email system will be up and running. I will email updates to Clare, hopefully daily for the next few days, and she will update the blog. As the system is satellite based it is very expensive to run and while i will be delighted to receive email from you I may not always be able to reply.
I hope you continue to 'tune in' to what's happening on Cho Oyu.
This morning we climbed over 300m to the top of the nearby Shegar hill fort, a magnificent although now ruined fort of tall turrets linked by a wall set on a very steep mountainside. in its prime the fort would have commanded the Xegar valley and given protection to the Buddhist monastery that stands at its foot.
We were highly privileged to be permitted to visit the monastery and were shown around by senior monks. Once through the ornate ochre coloured entranceway we were shown through a courtyard where monks were at work to the inner sanctum. All lighting was by candle and the air was redolent with the aroma of wax and animal fats. Through the gloom we could make out hundreds, even thousands, of statues and other figures adorned in golden, red, and other brilliant colours. While steeped in history and maintained in a very traditional way the monks are not isolated from the real world. We were shown pictures of other parts of the monastery by a monk on his iPad and when we were leaving the monastery the monks that had previously been working in the courtyard were now at leisure and several had mobile phones. To be allowed into such a special place was as marvellous as it was unusual.
On Sunday we shall travel to Chinese base camp where we shall stay for a few days training and further acclimatising before moving to the mountain base camp, known as ABC - advance base camp. Once at Chinese base camp while I will lose telephone contact the mountain email system will be up and running. I will email updates to Clare, hopefully daily for the next few days, and she will update the blog. As the system is satellite based it is very expensive to run and while i will be delighted to receive email from you I may not always be able to reply.
I hope you continue to 'tune in' to what's happening on Cho Oyu.