I SPENT MY 50TH ON MY BIKE ON THE SLOPES OF EVEREST!
EAMONN SWEENEY FROM ENNISCORTHY JUST CYCLED 750KM ACROSS TIBET. TALKED TO HIM
TURNING 50 is a momentous time in anyone’s life. While most people will content themselves with a night out in a local restaurant and a chocolate cake with family and friends to mark the half century, Eamonn Sweeney from Kilcarberry, Enniscorthy, had a different idea.
A major cycling enthusiast, Eamonn decided that he would be spending his 50th in the saddle. It would be no ordinary cycle either. He would be cycling across Tibet to Everest Base Camp, covering a total of 750km in the most challenging conditions.
‘I always wanted to see Everest,’ the native of Macroom said. ‘It was fairly simple how it came about really. I just googled cycling and Everest and saw what came up. I came across this trip and just kind of went for it.’
While the mountainous terrain of Himalayas can be difficult to access from a purely physical perspective, Eamonn also faced considerable difficulties in accessing Tibet at all, wading through a world of red tape enforced by the Chinese government.
‘It nearly didn’t happen. The trip was nearly off at least seven times,’ he explained. ‘We had a lot of issues with borders closing, Visa issues with the Chinese government, guys dropping out. It was pretty stressful. On a couple of occasions I thought I was going to lose the €2,000 plus I had put into it.’
As Eamonn flew out to the starting point of Kathmandu in Nepal, he was to be the only Irishman in a group that included two Dutch, two Swiss, two British, an Australian and a German. Having suffered a devastating earthquake back in 2015, Kathmandu is still very much in the process of rebuilding and Eamonn was shocked by what he saw.
‘ The streets are just rubble,’ he said. ‘ There are no traffic lights, nothing. I can tell you, I’ll never complain about potholes in Enniscorthy again! The place is still reeling from the earthquake.
‘We spent a couple of days cycling around to acclimatise at 1500m and you need absolute balls of steel over there. At an intersection you pretty much need to stare drivers down and just go.’
From Kathmandu, it was to be a short flight to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa. However, yet again, it very nearly didn’t happen for Eamonn.
‘I spent three days in Kathmandu, but I was only meant to spend one. The Chinese changed the visa regulations to enter Tibet three weeks before I arrived and what was previously a one day process became three.
‘So basically we were left in a situation that we went to the airport and literally an hour and a half before before the flight a motorbike pulledp up with a man on the back holding out our passports and visas! Typically then,
I was put in charge of the group visa and informed that if I lost it, we wouldn’t be able to get out of China!’
There was a noticeable shift upon arrival in Lhasa. Occupied by China since the 50s, Tibet is the kind of place where loose lips could result in you being locked up. Eamonn says that being constantly under surveillance is somewhat of an unnerving experience.
‘At Lhasa airport we e could see all these Chinese military jets and helicopters taking off, it was crazy,’’ said Eamonn.
‘ The first thing you notice - is it’s hard to breath when you get off the plane. You’re at three and a half f thousand feet and all of a sudden, even though you’ve e been training six days a week at home, you find d yourself getting out of f breath like an old man!
‘In the bus from the airport, I raised the subject of the Dalai Lama with our guide and he just put his finger to his lips and shook his head. Later back at the hotel, he informed me that there are cameras in the buses and any talk of freeing Tibet or the Dalai Lama can land you in serious trouble. The control the Chinese exert over these people is unbelievable. Every house is forced to fly a Chinese flag. It’s the one thing that really annoyed me about the whole trip.’
In fact, during the journey Eamonn nearly landed himself in trouble due to a coincidence in his cycling attire.
‘I brought one of these Enniscorthy 10k T-shirts which has a sunrise over Vinegar Hill in these bright colours on it,’ he explained. ‘I was there a couple of daysy when I realised that it bore a striking resemblance to the Tibet national flag!
‘I said it to one of the Sherpas and he said that he had noticed it all right, but I could plead ignorance as a tourist if I got any hassle. In the end I opted not to wear it again on the trip!’
The group took three days in Lhasa to acclimatise in a bid to avoid altitude sickness before setting off for Everest, almost gaining celebrity status in the process.
‘ The people in Tibet are amazing,’ said Eamonn. ‘ They have nothing, but they’re happy. I brought a few pencils and that kind of thing from Dealz to bring with me and handed them out to kids along the way. It was amazing that something so simple could mean so much to them.
‘When we finally got on the bikes, we couldn’t go anywhere without Chinese tourists taking our pictures. They couldn’t understand why a group of white men would come over and cycle to “Chomolonga” which is what they call Everest, when you could just do it in the comfort of a 4x4.’
It was from Lhasa that the mammoth mo task started. Thirteen tee days in the saddle, nineni of which the group wouldwo sleep in tents at theth side of the road, wide openop to the wild dogs andan wild lorry drivers whichwh roam the area. As a result, sleep was at a premiumpr and Eamonn onlyon managed three to fourfo hours sleep a night – further complicating matters.m
The first major climb tookto place on day two, risingri from 3,500 metres to 4,600 metres. ‘It’s hard to explain how tough it was,’ Eamonn said. ‘I was goinggo to do it for cystic fibrosisfi and it’s funny, becauseb up there I experienced rin not to be what able it to was breath.like
‘Over 12 days we did fourfo passes, each over 5,0005 metres. It was on day two we first started to see Everest. It was fairlyf covered in cloud and I remember thinking “typical, I’ll come all this way and see nothing!”’
That wasn’t to be the case though and when the group arrived at Rongbuk Monastery, just north of Everest, the view was perfect.
‘One of the Sherpas with us said that it was the clearest he had ever seen it,’ Eamonn recalled. ‘I had been dreaming of this site of Everest outside the tent for over a year. The sky was amazing – I wish I could’ve captured it properly. My camera didn’t do it justice.’
While the beauty of Everest in all its glory was something to behold, conditions in the saddle weren’t the only thing to worry about as temperatures were as low as minus 10.
‘It’s definitely the coldest that I’ve ever been in my life,’ said Eamonn. ‘It was minus 10 at base camp, but up the mountain it can get as cold as minus 50! Things like nipping out to take a leak at night become a big ordeal.
‘I had four layers on my legs, four layers on top of me, a fleece liner in the sleeping bag and then there’s three or four tent flaps to contend with... as well as a snoring six-foot-three Aussie sleeping beside you!’
WHILE the gang all made it to Everest base camp, they could get no further as to get inside costs in the region of $30,000 and Chinese security is extremely tight. While he ponders the question of whether he would ever want to climb Everest, Eamonn smiles and thinks for a minute, before deciding that his Everest curiosity has been sated for the moment.
‘I think my wife would kill me,’ he laughed. ‘While I would love to reach the top of Everest, there are more than 200 bodies up there on that mountain. It’s no joke. Plus it would be very expensive too. I think seeing it in all it’s glory was probably enough.
‘Would I do it again? Absolutely, but it would be tough knowing what I’d have to go through. One of the climbs saw a total of 42 hairpin turns.
‘It was unbelievably tough. It was 14 days on a bike. I recorded it all on the MapMyRide app and, strangely enough, with all the ups and downs, I climbed a total of 8,800 metres... which is conincidentally almost exactly the same height as Everest.’