In Tibetan, Chomolumnga means “Mother Goddess of the World.”  Standing before her (also known as Mount Everest), just after sunrise, there was little doubt in my heart as the depth of her name.  While this image — the highest elevation to-date of my journeys (18,600 feet or 5,600m on Kala Pattar) — was a milestone in many ways, the two nights before this photograph was created just might be more memorable of an experience …

We arrived in Gorak Shep, last village before Everest Base Camp, to find every room was taken, due to an unusually large trekking group arriving in town earlier.  One of the teahouse managers so generously offered us his personal tent for the night, and a room for the following evening if it became available.  (He would sleep in the dining room with the other Sherpas.) We crawled into the tent just after an icy sunset, grateful for sleep and that we had zero degree down sleeping bags for the Himalayan night.

A few hours into the night, my trekking companion awakened, having a bit of trouble breathing.  This was quite unusual — Doug is one of the rare few who is nearly unaffected by high altitude; sea level and 18,000′ (5500m) are about the same to him.  A quick investigation revealed that the tent was now covered in a thick layer of snow — an unexpected mountain storm had blown in and blanketed the area, even though it was the first week of April.  The snow was cutting air circulation — and the limited oxygen available to us sheltered in the tent.

I promptly awakened, and we spent the rest of the night alternating knocking the fresh snow off the sides of the tent.  It was little sleep and a very cold Himalayan morning when the first light revealed the transformed landscape, crystalline white — both a glistening beauty and new appreciation for the intensity of this landscape, the edge of life on the Khumbu glacier.

For more images, on the day after the snow storm, please see my post on Everest Base Camp.