Invited by explorer David Hempleman-Adams to travel as expedition artist to Everest Advanced
Base Camp,
Alan Cotton and his son Robin, who accompanied him, had been in training for over six
months. All the gear had been purchased, the vaccinations completed and on the 27th April 2011 they
flew off to Kathmandu. Alan takes up the story...
This was to be a long standing ambition for me to paint in high mountains. Robin and I both felt
very fit and ready to face anything the tour might throw at us. After several days acclimatising in
Kathmandu we flew on to Lhasa, the home of the Dali Llamas and then on up to Shigatse and Shigar,
stopping to acclimatise to the altitude at each stage. Finally we reached Thringi our last stop before
travelling to the Rongbuk Monastery ready for our trek to Base Camp. On our way through to Tibet
we had been warned about the dangers of altitude sickness, the need to avoid any uncooked food and
drink only sealed bottled water, but we had had no problems whatsoever and were both feeling really
good. What we could never have anticipated however is what would happen in the next twenty four
hours.
Everest! (picture not taken by Alan Cotton...)
On the morning of Thursday 5th May we did a trek to 15,000ft with no problems and that night went
to bed very excited at the thought of travelling on to Rongbuk Monastery at 17,000ft, from where
we would trek to the first Expedition Base Camp. We were both fast asleep when at around 1am
we were awoken by a hammering on the door. We opened it to find nine police officers, who came
aggressively into our room. They emptied all our bags, and searched every item - even flicking
through packets of tissues and examining the seams of garments. They took our cameras and looked
at every image. All this time they were videoing us and taking still photos. We tried to ask why they
were doing this, but were not allowed to ask questions. Next door was an American lady who was
more confrontational, she was pushed around, had her laptop scrutinised and ended up in tears. They
finally left, but we had little sleep that night.
Next morning we were told that the road to the monastery was closed as there had been an avalanche
during the night. This we knew to be untrue because a vehicle had travelled down from the monastery
that morning. It wasn't until later that day we discovered that a group of Americans had staged a
protest at Rongbuk, with flags and banners, to mark 60 years of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. This
had brought about a massive influx of both the military and police and it is certain that our night raid
was to check for any inflammatory material to see if we had been part of that group. Although it
would have been obvious following the search that we were not, we were nevertheless not allowed to
travel anywhere by vehicle and watched closely as we walked around the town. We were advised by
our team leader not to phone or send text messages with any of this information as they might well be
intercepted. It was also suggested that our rooms could have been bugged. We were later told that the
road could be closed for the next ten to fourteen days but there was no guarantee that the route would
be opened then.
The utter frustration of getting so close and knowing that had we been one day earlier we would have
been through the pass and at Base Camp was hard to bear. We had much discussion and advice, but
our guides were adamant that we needed to leave Tibet, so we had to pack our bags and make our
way back down to the border with Nepal at Freedom (how ironic!) Bridge. All the way down we were
stopped at road blocks to have our documents scrutinised and at Freedom Bridge it took almost four
hours to get through the Police Check Point - once more all our luggage being searched and camera
images checked. The American lady again had her laptop examined and was body searched.
The team of climbers, lead by David Hempleman-Adams, were ahead of us, already at Advanced
Base Camp and had been to the North Col, to acclimatise for the final ascent to the summit.
David had made the trip down to the first Base Camp to meet us only to be told that we had been
prevented from making the trek to Base Camp and that we were now back in Nepal. In an attempt to
compensate, David phoned down to Kathmandu and arranged for us to have a flight in a small aircraft
around Everest. Kind thought, but it was little compensation, because the pilot was not allowed to fly
over the Chinese Territory of Tibet, so we only glimpsed the Himalayan Range from a great distance.
David and his team hope to make their attempt on the summit on the 18th May, so we wish them luck.
Back home in Devon I am still trying to come to terms with having prepared for so long, travelled so
far and got so close, but - through no fault of my own - having not made it to Everest and having no
drawings or images for my 2012 London Exhibition. Will have to re-think that one!
Note from Ann Jones
Alan has told me that he has recently been invited by David Hempleman-Adams to make a further
attempt in October this year.
I am sure that the thoughts and best wishes of all of our members will be with our
President Emeritus
as we await the news of 'Part 2' of this great adventure.
