Intermediate Camp - 19,000 feet

So intermediate, intermediate camp was @ about 18000 feet. Intermediate camp is about 1000 feet farther up the mountain. It might seem like we are moving slow. Uh, we are. Yaks take time to load and all of us are feeling some effects of the altitude. Me, I'm glad that I spent 500 dollars on the best sleeping bag I could find. I found a brand new one for $439.
This is the clan in front of some rock monument thing. What you CANT see from this photo is that I sat the camera down on timer (10 seconds) and ran (that is right, about 18.500 feet) across so I could be part of the pciture. Took like 20 minutes for me to get my breath back. Not really it was only like 18 minutes.
I think Tom took this photo.
It started to clear up and this was a shot I took from inside my tent, out the back door.

Lastly, Colin took this shot. It is looking back towards Everest Base Camp, and as you can see the weather is starting to clear up. I think there was at least 6-8 inches of new snow here.

Intermediate, Intermediate Camp - 18,000 feet

I didn't take many photos of intermediate, intermediate camp. I think I was too miserable from the altitude. This yak is wondering why he got picked to haul our crap up the mountain. He was @ Rombuk, hanging out and doing just fine, until we showed up.
As you can clearly tell, it uh snowed.

Rombuk and Base Camp

Me in front of the Rombuk Monestary. This is where we got our yaks, and let me tell you, they were some of the skinniest yaks I ever saw!
Me sitting in front of the tribute plaque for George Mallory with Everest in the background. The lower portion of base camp is covered with little monuments of climbers who have died on the northern route. Part of me (the survivor portion) thinks "How silly is that, dying while climbing a stupid mountain?" then the achiever part of me thinks. "Well if I'm gonna go, I hope it's doing something I love." Neither are wrong, just different.
This is Pasang and Tom, chillin.
Me, enjoying the view Bill snaps this photo of us having a little meal time.
This is the day hike we went on. Everybody else was farther up the hillside. This is me, Colin and Tom. You can see the tents of Everest Base Camp below. We are at about 18000 feet here, and I am in super suffer mode. Little did I know, this was just the beginning of the sufferfest, and lord did I suffer.

Shigatse

For some reason, I didn't take many pictures in Shigatse. This is of the road we traveled.
This was when we first saw the himalayas.
This is me, after bawling like a 2 year old girl who just had her ice cream cone stolen.

Gyantse

Leaving Lhasa, we're now on an official Tibetan road trip. Two Toyota Land Cruisers, and 9 stinky men, in the heat of the desert. This was a monestary (and a monk) somewhere along the road.
The temple of a buh-zillion, katrillion buddahs.
Climbing steps with the city of Gyantse below.
Tom, sporting a new climbing hat. This cost a something like a whopping $ five bucks. From this day forward, it was known as the "bitchin' chapeau."

On to Lhasa

Here we go....Air China doesn't have the best reputation, but that's a chinese thing. Hope we don't die. Bill took this photo of Niels and Tom "faffing" while give a sign to my hommies in my 'hood. The big "K" deathtown Kirkland. Werd Up Dog.....

Off the Air China plane, and lord am I happy. Happy they didn't lose my luggage, happy I didn't lose my lunch, happy I didn't lose my life. I'm happy!
This is me, in front of the world famous Portola Palace.
Monks @ the Sara Monastery. The standing monk (more senior) is explaining to the more junior monk (sitting) the true meaning of life. I don't think the junior monk believes him.
Prayer Wheels. There were about 1 zillion of them, and I counted them.
Me, Michael (But he went by Mic) and Bill sporting the latest in Chinese eyewear. You see, clearly they have all the latest trends here in Lhasa.

Bill captured a really good shot of the market in Lhasa.

Kathmandu

So after seeing sites and getting crap prepped, it's time to ride.

Michael, Tom, Bill, Colin, Niels, Me

Kathmandu

There was much to dislike about Kathmandu. It's a typical over crowded filthy city that you don't want to spend 10 minutes within. However, if you take the time, you can see some jewels. This is the very famous and completely cool Thamel area. Shopping, food, bars, and yet, another FREAK show.
These young men, wanted me to take their photo, and this is what i got. Cute, huh?
This was in the Durbar Square area of Kathmandu. We went to the worlds largest Stupa, Boudhanath, I met a group of guys from India, so we took a photo. I think they were all brothers. Kidding. It's a joke. Just cousins.
The fog covered steps to the monkey temple. You can't have a monkey temple without a monkey, technically a macaque. This is one of my favorite photos.

I'll soon be seeing you

I sit beside the dark

Beneath the mire

Cold grey dusty day

The morning lake

Drinks up the sky

Kathmandu

I'll soon be seeing you

And your strange bewildering time

Will hold me down

Chop me some broken wood

We'll start a fire

White warm light the dawn

And help me see

Old satan's tree

Kathmandu

I'll soon be touching you

And your strange bewildering time

Will hold me down

Pass me my hat and coat

Lock up the cabin

Slow night treat me right

until I go

Be nice to know

Kathmandu

I'll soon be seeing you

And your strange bewildering time

Will keep me home

One Night in Bangkok and the World's your Oyster

Well technically it wasn't one night but 3-4 I think. Visited some of the local Buddha monuments, and went to a Thai cooking school. This is the very cool (and quite active) Khaosan Road, area in Bangkok, near the Golden Palace. I took this photo @ 7am, when everyone was still completely hungover. The same shot, basically @ about 9pm @ night. Gotta tell you, Khaosan is very touristy, but also a very fun area to go and hang out. If you are offended by drugs, freaks, and general weirdness, don't stay here. If you are not, come, sit out on the sidewalk drink a beer in the evening and watch the FREAK show. This is where the magic cooking show happened. Damn, I can cook some mean ass food. BAM, SLAM OH DAMN. Iron Chef, bring that shit on!

One of many, many sites to see in Bangkok. It alone is worth a week. Thailand was very fun.

Oh, yea. Somebody brought him over here. Since it was right next to my hotel, I looked in, everytime I passed by. Place was packed. Go figure. The thai food I had here was AMAZING, why the hell would you be eating worm burgers?

Bangkok Flight

OK, the flight wasn't bad. I flew Thai Air, coach, which was honestly a considerable step up from regular international coach flight I've taken with a US based carrier. I was very excited (and anxious at the thought for anything I left behind) and since I didn't sleep the night before, I was able to sleep on the plane. The list of essentials:

• Glasses (to replace contact lenses)
• Ambien (for that somewhat relaxing sleep)
• Water (Nope, thanks you TSA bastards, since water and nitroglycerin look SO much alike.)
• Eye Shade (Nighty Night!)
• Neck Pillow (Didn't even need it!)
• Books, Magazines, etc.

All Night?

My flight leaves in the morning. I just spent the whole night (that's right, no sleep whatsoever) in preparation. Am I an idiot or what? No, but this man certainly is. Oh, sorry he is the country's first president to have an MBA. Like that's worth a bucket full of shit.

Time to Ramble Again

Leaves are falling all around,

Its time I was on my way.

Thanks to you, I'm much obliged

For such a pleasant stay.

-

But now its time for me to go,

The autumn moon lights my way.

For now I smell the rain,

And with it pain,

And its headed my way.

-

Ah, sometimes I grow so tired,

But I know Ive got one thing I got to do,

Ramble on,

And nows the time, the time is now

To sing my song.

-

-

After weeks of planning and months of desire, it's time to go climbing...big time. Off to Tibet and Nepal for 2 months. Brian won't be going with me for half fo the trip, and obvously I'm disappointed, but I decide to go on.Seattle<-->LAX<-->Bangkok<-->Kathmandu

This is a NASA photo of Everest from the North side.

Is that a hole in yer ass?

Since we downclimbed with so few protection pieces, on many occasions it was just as easy to sit on our butts and slide down the rock, slow and easy. Well for Michelle, that came @ a price since she was wearing some lightweight adventure racing tights. I think these went into the trash bin after our little adventure, didn't they Michelle?

Wild Blueberries!

So we make our way back to camp. Safe and sound we decide to stop and feast on some of the millions (no kidding) wild blueberries that have ripened in the September sun. These things could not taste any better. Many are too perfect for words.

Up, Up, Up and Down, Down, Down

The route description clearly states that little to no protection is necessary for the route through the Fisher chimneys. Just to be safe, I bring 3 smallish cams. Cams are not the lightest pro you can carry, but frankly they are in my mind, clearly the most versatile, hence they reason they were invented.

As we continue to move upward, I get crammed in a small crack with some moss and grass that needs some protection. Michelle gets herself sketched out scrambling up a piece of rock and needs my help to get her down. Hmmm...I thought this route didn't need any pro???? What is up with that....Stupidly, we climb on.

Three small pitches and 4 plus hours later, we're pinched. Climbed ourselves into a rock canyon that I CANNOT climb up. Son of a Bitch. Rat Bastard. Muther Fuck Fucker. The route I THINK we need to be on, is not our route. We're blocked. Shit all mighty, now we need to downclimb this bastard!!!

With very little pro, we get resourceful. I use slip knots and solid knob's to guide us down. We find a picket with a couple of 'biners on it. We use that. I sacrifice a brand new yates picket and Michelle offers up several runners during the course of our decent.

After our scramble down, we hit the safety of the talus slopes a little before noon. Time to get back to camp.

In the dark of the night....

We make our way along the trail head. As we approach the Fisher chimneys, they appear COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than when we reconned them just 8 hours earlier. We placed marker rocks near our suggested entrance point, but without my GPS, they were nearly impossible to find in the dark, even with a good headlamp. Hmmmm...I'm not for one who likes to wander around in the dark especially if you A) don't know where you are, and more importantly B) don't know where you need to go.

So, we decided to wait a couple hours until morning to get a better handle on things.

We have a plan!

I'd suggested we be on the summit no later than 10am, which was kinda pushing the outer limits of where I wanted to be on late summer melting snow. It was pretty consolidated and firm, but melting pretty fast and crevases were opening up on the lower portions. Michelle seemed to be good with my plan. We leave @ 1am.

Shuksan Recon

Michelle and I decide since we have some daylight and energy, we'll do some recon on the route through the Shuksan chimneys to ensure we get on the right track. Having limited confidence in the description in the Beckey book (hard to interpret for me) we sketch out a proposed route based upon what we've read.

We try to pick a route through the chimneys that appears the easiest. We later learned this was MUCH easier to say, than to actually do.

Based upon what we investifgated, we determined going AROUND the rock was easier than trying to climb up one of the cully faces.

Ah Fuck son, it's Shuksan

Before I head off for 2 months, Michelle and I decide to climb Mount Shuksan, via the Fisher chimneys. Here we are on the trail head, near the Lake Ann parking lot @ Baker National Forest.