Today was the first real test of our ability to actually accomplish something major in the Everest region. Just to the south of Gokyo lies a small mountain named Gokyo Ri at 5,300m. From this summit you can see four 8,000+ meter peaks on a clear day. Everest, Lhotse, Makula and Cho Oyo can all be seen.
We left the tea house at 4:30AM so we could see as much of the sunrise as possible as well to have the best luck for clear weather as the typical Himalayan clouds start to set in mid-day.
It took us about three hours to reach the summit which is about 550m of elevation gain from our tea house. Once up, we were rewarded with amazing views and could clearly see the Everest complex consisting of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse. There are a lot of stupas (Buddhist rock stacks) with prayer flags attached. We we able to get some really neat photos.
It took us a little over an hour to descend back to Gokyo and our tea house where I spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing in our our room. It was a hard climb and my body is struggling to adjust so more rest time is best for me.
Tomorrow we leave at normal time for a relatively easy traverse of the glacier to Dragnag. Then we will have plenty of rest time again to prepare for one of the harder days of our trip, climbing the Cho La pass and descending that glacial valley to Lobuche which returns us to the main Khumbu valley and back on our trek to EBC.
Mike, sorry haven't looked at this previously so got caught up today. Sounds like its been an awesome trip so far with more awesomeness to come. Glad you made the decision not to push as hard as you could as a long way still to go , so that's the smart play. Those Sherpas are amazing but they are biologically adapted to the rigors so unless you were born there its hard to compete. what amazed me when on the Tibetan side was how despite the poverty and the hard life people were still smiling versus the western life where people are angry and hassled yet have so much.
ReplyDeleteThis looks much better than staring at a computer screen so hope you are enjoying the time to reflect on what is important and what isn't in life.
Keep the updates coming and sadly I suspect the bathroom facilities will continue to get worse LOL
Mark
Yes, the bathroom facilities continue to deteriorate. I will never look negatively at a porta-john again.
Delete