Sneaking our Poet onto Mount Everest

Remember how a certain Poet in our group was having trouble getting a permit to go to Mount Everest? Well, that never actually got worked out. Turns out some people can get away with walking right by the military guards at all the checkpoints, no problem. Who knew?

Ever wonder why all the mountains in the Himalayas except for Mount Everest seem to have, well, Himalayan sounding names? Well, it turns out that the Himalayan people already had a name for Mount Everest before the Brits came through and decided it should be called Mount Everest! Here in Tibet they call it Mount Qomolangma. Crazy stuff.

Here's some selfies from the bottom of the mountain.

Here's the group

Here's a guy who tried to bum a cigarette off of us when we stopped on the way from Shigatze, then walked away when no one had one.

Here's our Poet taking a picture of him walking away.

Lil' house in the Himalayas

 After we went through the first check point and scooped up our Wandering Poet, we hit some of the bumpiest roads on the planet. But the views were something else.

Prayer flags at the top of the mountain with the placard that taught us that the real name for Mount Everest was Mount Qomolangma

It's the big white one behind the clouds.

Big A, thrilled to be having his photo taken by the aforementioned placard.

 This kid rolled up on his motorbike blasting Gangnam Style. This is what a cool kid Tibetan looks like.

These Land Cruisers were the perfect thing for tackling roads under such poor conditions, sailing right over the bumps and potholes like freshly paved road. We didn't ride in one. We rode in a big clunky van of Chinese manufacture with no suspension system to speak of.

Some hot geological features

Right here was about where our bumpity old van got a flat tire.

There it is! Or maybe it's just another snowy mountain with clouds at the top. We weren't keeping very good tabs on these things.

 Changing the tire.

Now that's one quaint little bridge.

 And HERE

IT

IS!

Now that's at least the tallest mountain I've ever seen. The locals said today was the first day in weeks it was clear enough to see the peak.

Which you could still see at night.

And

in the

 morning too!

And here's a drawing I made during the 10 minutes the Army guys let us hang out and look at the mountain before we had to go back to the bus.

Some bonus shots:

The tent we stayed in. 

This guy took the photos of us in the beginning of this blog post. I haven't even heard of the old Ork!