Edita wrote today and her chinese sim card seems to be working well so she called too 🙂  … Yesterday I was not able to talk to her as I was crazy busy as I was dealing with another Chinese “thing” A(H7N9).  So happy to see all the AJs enjoying the journey to the Big E.  OK,… Edita’s words and photos…
“Driving from Nyalam to Tingri in a mini bus this morning, we passed over the Tibetan plateau, we reached the Tong La pass which is the highest point today (my altimeter showed here something  5.2 km).

We stopped here to take some photos – a classic view of Tibetan landscape with many Tibetan prayer flags hanging over the pass. There is snow everywhere on the road and on the surrounding hills. Phil said he never seen that much snow in this area before. I asked if this is a good sign or bad.. He said it is a good sign that means there will be less of rock scrambling on the mountain when we start the climb.

Highest Hwy

The sky was so clear today. As we continued driving on the highest, we passed another 8,000ner- Shishapangma, that is the only 8’000ner totally in China (not on the boarder).
After reaching the Tibetan plateau’s highest point, we started descending towards Tingri which is approximately 4.3 km. Suddenly, ahead of us, in a bit hazy skyline, we saw three remarkable peaks – Cho Oyu (8.2 km) on the right, Gyachung Kang (7.9 km) in the middle and Mt Everest on the left! The stream of joy was powerful, coming out of my chest…

Thrilled to See Everest and Cho Oyu !!

AJ Team Jumping Together

Edita Jumping with Joy

We arrived in Tingri. (See the  spot tracker  she sent here http://fms.ws/BgkU1/28.58504N/86.61402E )  I recognized the hotel from last time I came here before climbing Cho Oyu. The rooms are clean and sunny (opposite from Nyalam where dark and damp). Tingri is even smaller and dirtier than Nyalam, however, it is sunny and dry here! I feel much much better and my cough is going away. Beside a small wall about 200 m up the hill outside Tingri where we went to see the views of Everest, we spent the whole afternoon sitting in the sun, drinking tea with honey (i found a litre of pure honey from Nepal in Nyalam!) to treat my cough. Others are drinking Lhasa beer. By the way, Lhasa beer is so light that Phil is jokingly recommending it for hydration.. It definitely has more nutritious elements than water!

Junkies near hotel in Tingri

Going up the stairs or up the hill, I definitely felt the altitude as I had to slow down and have a breath before passing out… However, I feel pretty good, no headaches so far. I am planning to take it easy here in Tingri, hoping to fully recover from my cough.”  Edita told me that they all just want to get going. Tingri is a dusty, dry  place. The picture below shows just how rough it is there and this young boy was kind enough to let her take his photo.

Boy in Tingri

Glad Edita is feeling better. Please don’t forget to give even just a few bucks to the Sahel Campaign. Thanks Mark S for matching the largest contribution. Anyone care to match it or go one step higher?