Phurba Sherpa, from Paphlu, posing in front of Kangchenjunga, 8598 m, top right mountain. View from Kangchenjunga Base Camp, 5100 m. Tents are from a Korean expedition. Temperature -5 Celsius, at night -18 Celsius. November, 1999.
Kangchenjunga base camp, 5100 m, a few remaining tents of a Korean expedition. They are about to break up the last tents. They had some 40 climbers, a very large number as East Asians always do. Their attempt failed and they lost three climbers in the process, all dead. Two climbers had a valid climbing license and were shipped out by the rescue helicopter but one didn't. He was buried illegally under some rocks nearby to avoid problems with the Nepalese authorities.
It is rare not to see Kangchenjunga in the clouds, we are lucky but the clouds will soon cover the mountain again. The moist air from the Gulf of Bengals tends to drift in with the dominant South-Eastern wind and Eastern Nepal has notably more cloud cover and is wetter in autumn compared to the rest of the country.