17,500'
Because weather on Everest permits reasonable climbing only twice a year, and acclimatization can take over two months, each year Base Camp hosts a small, eccentric community from all over the world. Areas of the rocky field as close to the mountain as possible but hopefully out of the reach of avalanches, are staked out by each expedition. Personal and mess tents are set up, and a network of prayer flags are hung to flutter in the wind. Teams with sherpas hold a puja (pooja), a Buddhist ceremony to ask the gods for protection and permission to climb within their heights. No sherpa will climb on the mountain without a puja, and many western climbers come to feel a similar spirituality toward Everest.
