Gokyo

Today was another relatively easy hike up to and then over the toe of the Gokyo glacier.  We climbed to 4,770m (15,250 feet).  We are now well above tree line and into high alpine environments.  We can all feel the effects of the thin atmosphere where we are nearing 50% of oxygen available to us in each breath.

Gokyo itself is on the side of the glacier which is all covered in dirt and rocks as is typical around the terminal toe of a glacier.  The moraine formed many steep sections we climbed up as we approached the three lakes that are on the side of the glacier.  They are stunningly beautiful with a deep, brilliant blue color and ice covering parts of them.

It was a fairly short hike today only taking about 4 hours to get here.  Afternoon rest for the mortals while the crazy athletes in our crew go out for another jog and the porters sit around playing cards and smoking.

I started taking Diamox a couple days ago to help with acclimatization.  I'm not sure it is making a difference but it doesn't seem to be hurting me either.  It does cause me to have a tingling sensation in my fingers and occasionally my feet.  My typical resting heart rate at sea level is 64 and my oxygen saturation level is between 97 and 99.  As I've climbed in altitude the resting heart rate went up and my O2 saturation dropped.  Interestingly enough, I've been able to watch my body acclimatize to altitude as in the evening my O2 level has been as low as 76 but typically by morning I'm back up to 85-88.  Also, my resting heart rate was climbing for a while as my heart worked to keep up with less oxygen but it is now returning to my normal mid-60's.  I was as low as 51 for a bit today before lunch too.

Tomorrow morning we are going to climb the first mountain Gokyo Ri (technically it is a mountain but by Himalayan standards it is more like a bump in the ground at 5,375m in altitude (17,200 feet).  We'll leave early and hike in the dark with headlamps so we can reach the summit early in the morning when winds are calmer and the sky is clearer.  Generally speaking the weather here changes mid-day with clouds and storms building late in the morning.  When the sky is clear, the vista from Gokyo Ri allows clear views of four 8,000m peaks including Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyo and Makalu.

The exciting thing about this view is since we are now to the west a bit of Everest, we can look towards the Western Cwm (pronounced coom) between Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse.  With this vantage, we should see most of Everest including parts of its western ridge.

As we've climbed higher and further into the back country, the tea houses have remained similar, especially their menus.  One thing that has degraded significantly is bathroom facilities.  We are now down to two community "rooms", one with an in-floor squatter and the other with a more European looking bowl (no seat though).  Neither have flush mechanisms or even water run to them.  They are flushed manually by pouring a small bucket of water from a barrel in the room into the hole.  Also there is no heat in the sleeping rooms or the bathrooms so fairly cold to do much of anything without jackets and clothes on.

My laptop battery is dying and I'm not sure when I'll next get to plug it in so there might be a gap in blog posts if I don't find a charging station.