Inspiration for Mount Everest

My husband Jim and I are very independent travelers. We wanted to backpack in to the Tibetan side of Mount Everest. The Chinese authorities want everyone to pay for an expensive permit and to hire an expensive Jeep and guide for the trip from Lhasa. But since we wanted to backpack for several days, we didn't want to be paying for a car we weren't using. So we got together with Sean, a like-minded Australian fellow, and bussed/hitchhiked from Lhasa to Tingri. No one ever asked for the supposedly required travel permit. From Tingri we backpacked several days to base camp. Much to our amazement, we were the only people there.

Mount Everest was clear and we had an awesome view. After a couple of days of hiking in the area, we walked out along the road for a day. We were finally picked up by a truck driver who spoke not a word of English, so we communicated hilariously through our phrase book.

At the top of a pass we took a rest stop, and this was the view of Mount Everest that I painted.