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Journal
4: Dreaming of Spam
by
Ed Hommer
August
18, 2001
Tingri, Tibet
We arrived in Tingri today after a four-hour drive from Nyalam. Tingri is at an elevation of 14, 300 ft. We spent yesterday doing a short acclimatization climb out of Nyalam. We did it in two groups going to about 13,700 feet. Everybody is feeling well and feeling strong.
The drive from Nyalam took us through some of the most desolate yet beautiful landscape that I have ever seen. The euphoria of these views, however, was tempered by the impoverished existence that the Tibetan people live. To have to refuse the many children who beg for food strikes the heart in a hard way.
Our accommodations along the road here have led to many of us having a few flea and bed-bug bites — a small price to pay to travel this region of the planet. Another affliction in the group is shaved heads. We’re not saying who, but some of you at home will be surprised when we return.
Tomorrow we will spend all day here to acclimatize before leaving for basecamp early on the morning of the 20th.
The local food has been good overall, but tonight at dinner some of us were saying how much we looked forward to getting into base camp and having a fried Spam sandwich on chapatti with mustard and Velveeta cheese.
We have been informed by our liaison that the road into basecamp is quite bad, and the trip will take seven or eight hours to travel the approximately 70 miles.
Providing the weather is good, we will get some great views from the high pass along the route, which is over 17,000 ft high. As I said, we do have the capabilities to transmit photos during the climb but have not yet had the time to do so. We hope to give it a try tonight. Jim Sturgis and Karl Swanson are fine-tuning a few more items on this system to make it’s use more efficient and user friendly.
Once we are in basecamp and can set the system up inside of a communications tent, we will get more photos out on a regular basis.
I am sure many folks are curious about how my legs are working out. The answer is: very good overall. I traveled here with three sets of my Hangar legs for various conditions. Tom Halvorson and I have been working a little each day, trying various combinations of legs and inner liners. We are seeking optimum performance, as nothing less will get this job done.
As it is 23:45 hours here in Tibet, which is 10:40 central time, I’ll close for now. Best wishes from Tibet.
--Ed
