Hike to Dole

Today marks our first substantial hiking day as we begin our path into the Khmbu valley and then off towards Gokyo.  Our route is not the normal up and back route to visit Everest Base Camp.  We are taking a side route up that will add about 30km of trail, several additional nights of stops and an amazing peak to climb, Gokyo Ri.

Although Gokyo Ri isn't a significant peak, 5,300m, it provides a commanding view of the area with four 8,000m peaks visible on a clear day including Cho Oyo and Everest.  Not far from here (relatively speaking) is Runga Ri where if you are familiar with Conrad Anker, he had his heart attack while attempting a first ascent of the peak at around 6,000m.

Today's hike had a lot of up and down hiking over about 12km of trail.  We first climbed from 3,400m up to 3,900m and then down to 3,600m and then ultimately back up to 4,100m.  We saw some amazing forest on this segment of trail along with crystal clear views of Everest's pyramid and the south face of Lhotse.  Of course Ama Dablam was ever present as we continued to get closer to her too.

Part way through the hike, we stopped for lunch in a small village at 3,900m.  From here, we could see amazing views of Phortse where the Khumbu Climbing School has been built.  It is having it's grand opening on June 13th.  This is the major work of the Alex Lowe foundation with the purpose of teaching proper mountaineering and safe climbing techniques to the local Nepalese people to make them safer as guides on expeditions.  It is also built as a community center and in light of the devastating 2015 earthquake, it was structurally designed to be an emergency shelter too.

From here our path took us down very low to the main river in the Gokyo valley.  We have now left the Khumbu valley and the main pathway to Everest Base Camp.  Along this segment of trail we passed countless waterfalls full of rich amounts of running water.  They were so beautiful, we were simply redirected from the ever present view of amazing mountain peaks with stunning waterfalls, as if nature thought we needed a change to focus on for a while.

We eventually arrived in the small village of Dole and "checked in" to our tea house for the night.  Our accommodations have taken a step down in quality as get further into the region and higher in altitude.  The character of the people and the quality of the food hasn't changed, it is still really, really good.

The temperature has started to change, last night I slept in my sleeping bag for the first time that I really felt I needed it along with using my headlamp.  There is no electricity here except a few solar panels with a couple storage batteries so everything electric is sparse.

Today is going to be a short hike up to Machharmo about 5km from here and up about 300m in altitude.  This is sort of meant to be more altitude aclimitization to continue to help our bodies adjust to the continually reduced content of oxygen present in each breath.  Today we will end up higher than anywhere in the continental United States.