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Mt Everest - The 'wrong' side Mt Everest - The 'wrong' side
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Photo by Hendi Kaf, in Cambodia

I haven't been everywhere...
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Photo by Hendi Kaf,
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  #1  
Old 11 Jan 2012
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Mt Everest - The 'wrong' side
Hi All,
My mate and I are considering a trip up Mt Everest base camp...the south side from Nepal rather than the China side with our old teneres...frustrated with the burecracy that China is putting up so we want to stick it to them

So exploring the options of attempting a ride up to south base camp with our bikes..I heard that yaks and people are trekking up so we're thinking bikes can do it also...heard about a swedish lady attempting it a few years ago but not heard if she was successful....we're not novices either and fully realise the implications but I wanted to hear ppl's opinions on possibilities etc...we'll be discussing this with ppl that trekked there on foot also and obviously try to obtain as much info as possible...

The ride will be from London to Nepal and back....not sure exactly which way first and which way back but will be formulating this shortly...
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Old 11 Jan 2012
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Not possible from the Nepal side. It's against the rules as it's a national park and you can't ride in past the park gates.

Whether it's even rideable is another question. It's a hiking trail primarily with things like steps and as such would be a push for even a trials bike. Before they shut it down to mountain biking, I met some Canadians that were riding/carrying their mountain bikes up, that was in 1989 and even for them sections weren't rideable. Squeezing past a yak train on a narrow hiking trail with a yawning cliff to one side wouldn't be a lot of fun on a motorbike.
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Old 11 Jan 2012
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Bugger, that was my main concern (it being a national park) the trek was also but there you have it....back to the drawing board then...
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Old 11 Jan 2012
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Shivalaya
I think the closest you can get from the Nepalese side is Shivalaya. Here's a story by Big Tom on their ride there:

BIG TOMS RIDE - TRAVEL BLOG
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Old 12 Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by MountainMan View Post
Not possible from the Nepal side. It's against the rules as it's a national park and you can't ride in past the park gates.

Whether it's even rideable is another question. It's a hiking trail primarily with things like steps and as such would be a push for even a trials bike. Before they shut it down to mountain biking, I met some Canadians that were riding/carrying their mountain bikes up, that was in 1989 and even for them sections weren't rideable. Squeezing past a yak train on a narrow hiking trail with a yawning cliff to one side wouldn't be a lot of fun on a motorbike.
Thanks to the Nepalese for this!
Bikes are great but they don't belong on the highest/remotest parts of this planet - that's my view.
So, I do hope that Nepal does not follow the example of China to develop bitumen based access to Everest base camp.
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Old 12 Jan 2012
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Hey Ekke, thats great info thank you...pretty high up and thats what we wanted without guides etc...

Walkabout I'm all for preserving origins and hence wanted to attempt something that doesnt have a road or expect one to be built..afterall however I am a biker and thats my passion but I am totally against building roads/tracks on native ground (hence why I ride trial )

Actually in my search we found Marsimik Le in India...5582m..highest pass so that will do us me thinks
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Old 12 Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by tomski View Post
Hey Ekke, thats great info thank you...pretty high up and thats what we wanted without guides etc...

Walkabout I'm all for preserving origins and hence wanted to attempt something that doesnt have a road or expect one to be built..afterall however I am a biker and thats my passion but I am totally against building roads/tracks on native ground (hence why I ride trial )

Actually in my search we found Marsimik Le in India...5582m..highest pass so that will do us me thinks
No worries tomski.
I am not against change it's just progress I don't like - Mark Twain I believe.

Seriously, I understand the need for roads between habitable locations (I have had a hand in building some, largish, highways) for commerce and communications and I am not at all against the aspirations of people in other countries who want the modern constructions that other nations have had for years. Unlike those others who bemoan the asphalting of piste, that has poorly served the economies of developing countries, because they want to travel "off road" - once, twice, thrice, whatever, but the local inhabitants have to travel that same route endlessly.

But roads/bridges have no right to exist where they serve no sensible purpose. As an extreme, to the top of Everest??
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Old 29 Jan 2012
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Chinese Kids Insane Commute To School (Video)




Children from the Pili Village in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, are forced
to climb cliffs and cross freezing rivers to reach their school. It takes them two days to
finish the crazy 125-mile commute through the mountains.
Every term, village officials and teachers come to the village collecting the 80 school kids
that live there, escort them to the boarding school, then send them back
at the end of every semester.





Chinese Kids Insane Commute To School (Video)
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Old 28 Mar 2012
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Originally Posted by _CY_ View Post
Chinese Kids Insane Commute To School (Video)




Children from the Pili Village in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, are forced
to climb cliffs and cross freezing rivers to reach their school. It takes them two days to
finish the crazy 125-mile commute through the mountains.
Every term, village officials and teachers come to the village collecting the 80 school kids
that live there, escort them to the boarding school, then send them back
at the end of every semester.





Chinese Kids Insane Commute To School (Video)
Character building stuff and those kids will be all the better for it.
Looks like similar activity to what I used to get up to when I was their age and out of school (damned near drowned more than once).

There's nothing wrong with taking a decent walk in the countryside.
But, anyone who has herded a bunch of adults, never mind children, will know that 80 of them are not going to walk 62.5 miles per day for 2 days; not over that kind of terrain.
The bigger the group, the slower the rate of progress.

Interesting post though.
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  #10  
Old 28 Mar 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomski View Post

Actually in my search we found Marsimik Le in India...5582m..highest pass so that will do us me thinks
Marsimik La is in a military zone, and you need special military permission from Leh to get there.
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  #11  
Old 29 Mar 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomski View Post
heard about a swedish lady attempting it a few years ago but not heard if she was successful....
Annie Seel (google her, she is stunning) drove to 5305 metres in 2003 (from north). When I talked to her she mentioned a chinese guy who made it up to 6200m. I know there was a plan to go back with more powerfull bikes but I don't know if it happened.
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Old 29 Mar 2012
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Originally Posted by AliBaba View Post
Annie Seel (google her, she is stunning) drove to 5305 metres in 2003 (from north). When I talked to her she mentioned a chinese guy who made it up to 6200m. I know there was a plan to go back with more powerfull bikes but I don't know if it happened.
She never made it back. UK Dakar rider Tamsin Jones was in the Northern Base Camp in November 2011 and rode to 5359m.

The Chinese set an official world record on Everest in 2002, going to 6113 metres.

It was still below the unofficial record at the time of 6176m set in Nepal by Hungarian Istvan Juhasz.

For more info on a lot of the high rides (Annie Seel is not in there as her ride was a long way below other rides at the time) I have a summary of many high altitude rides here Andes Moto Extreme: Altitude Review
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  #13  
Old 29 Mar 2012
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Originally Posted by colebatch View Post
She never made it back.
That might be right, but she is still one of the hardest riders I've met. Some might remember this picture: (she continued after the crash):

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  #14  
Old 29 Mar 2012
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Walter

Congrats on the new altitude record!
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  #15  
Old 30 Mar 2012
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Originally Posted by Matt Roach View Post
Walter

Congrats on the new altitude record!
Thanks, still recovering now.

The whole experience gave us an excellent understanding of riding at extreme altitude, bike performance at extreme altitude and physical effort at extreme altitude. Most other record attempts with bikes were just 3-4 days at high altitude. We were at high altitude for about 2 weeks, and above 5250 metres for a full week.

There is more detail on facebook ... http://www.facebook.com/HusabergAdventureTeam
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