Everest Base Camp via Gokyo Lakes (Part 5 of 7)
Views from the sky
Trekking Day 12: Gokyo Ri (5,360m/17,585ft)
Good hiking weather: bright, clear, blue skies.
The trail for Gokyo Ri could be seen from the dining room of the teahouse. It looked sharp and mean, from where it diverged from the gentle slope for the Renjo La Pass.
Hiking it proved it was just as sharp and mean.
On the lower elevations of the hike, the trail meandered through low brush. The recent rains had turned the trail to mud, although some of it had dried by the time we went trampling up. In higher elevations, the trail was still covered in snow a foot deep, and trekkers had been playing “let’s find the right trail” game on the hillside. It was hard to figure out where the trail really was.
At one point, perhaps because we had mentioned to our guide that our boots were not waterproof, he led the way to an area that was not snow-covered — instead it was a steep incline without footholds. N. actually blurted out, “This is not the trail; it looks dangerous.” Another time he muttered loudly, “This is stupid.” I think our guide got the message; we were led back toward what looked like a trail.
By the time we could see the flags in the summit — still seemingly far away — N. looked in bad shape: he didn’t have any energy, stopped every 10 steps, and hung his head between his shoulders as if it were too heavy to hold up.
In a mere 5.6 km we had gained an elevation of 645 meters. Altitude of Gokyo Ri: 5,360 meters (17,585 feet).
Oh, I should mention that the hike was absolutely worth the views: as we rose, the emerald green of the lake kept getting deeper (and from the top we could see three lakes). The Ngozumba Glacier, the largest in Nepal, revealed itself in all its crevasses and melted lakes, both gray and turquoise. And the peaks, well, peeked out from the clouds: Everest, Lobuche West, Cho Oyu.
Mercifully, hiking down is easier and faster. The fact that the clouds were rolling in and it started to snow made us focus on each step. The lake and the village were no longer visible in the light snow.
The most dangerous thing I did on that mountain was pee. Because I just couldn’t hold any longer, I asked the guide to show me an inconspicuous spot. I was so desperate that it wasn’t until I was feeling some relief that it hit me that I was holding onto rocks on a ledge just barely wide enough for one foot.
We made it back to the teahouse alive and N. went straight to his sleeping bag. I had a lunch of tomato soup and cheese sandwich while trying to warm myself by the fire and “cook” our boots and socks dry.
When I told the younger brother/teahouse boss that we had just come back from Gokyo Ri, he said that when he was a teen, he made it to the summit in 40 minutes; it was considered a tricky hike because of the many “false” summits — so I learned what those things that triggered false hopes are called.
On a random note, he shared the happy news that the teahouse’s new washing machine had arrived, delivered courtesy of a porter — 175 kilos by a man who weighs 65kgs; they are paid by weight.
It was later when we were going through our photos that I realized that, back near Namche, I had actually taken a picture of a washing machine by the side of the trail. By looking at the label in the picture, it was clear that the picture I had taken four days before at 3,440m/11,286ft altitude was the very same washing machine I now saw at Gokyo at 4,790m/11,715ft. The delivery man had been right behind us all along — with a washing machine on his back!
We had been the only guests yesterday; today a steady troop of trekkers arrived, making the place loud and lively.
Welcome news: our helicopter to Lobuche has been booked for tomorrow. Cost is USD $100 per minute, which under N.’s current condition after Gokyo Ri, we are happy to pay.
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Trekking Day 13: helicopter ride to Lobuche
Good helicoptering weather: bright, clear, blue skies.
We sat in the dining room of the teahouse, looking at the bobbing jacket colors coming down Gokyo Ri around 9:30 am, which means they had left for the hike around 4 am. Respect.
This morning we ran into the solo Aussie who had been in the same teahouse as we were in Namche. It was good to see that he seemed to be recovering from the effects of the altitude sickness that had been plaguing him.
By the time 11 o’clock rolled around, I got hungry and was just about to order some soup when the younger brother came to say that our helicopter was coming. We grabbed our bags, hurried outside to the helipad, and began to hear the blades beating the thin air.
A trio of tourists got off, we got on, our bags were dumped next to me and before we knew it, the little copter seemed to be heaving upwards. Just when I was wondering if I shouldn’t have filled all our water bottles, the heli rose.
It was hard not to feel sensory overload, up close to so many peaks. Many times, it almost felt as if the blades were going to blow snow off the mountainside.
N. was multitasking in the front seat, with his phone on his left hand, and his camera on his right. But photos don’t fully capture the majesty of these peaks.
Perhaps a couple of videos will…
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We arrived at a teahouse run by a cousin of the brothers who ran the one in Gokyo. At the teahouse next door, we even visited the younger brother’s wife — through our guide, her husband had sent her some dried yak meat.
It was still early in the morning — the heli ride was only 12 minutes long — so we went on a short hike up a hill closeby to take a peek at the Khumbu Glacier and at the various peaks ringing the little village of Lobuche: Tobuche, Cholatse, Lobuche itself, and Nupse.
On the way back, I tried to make a snow angel on the side of the hill.
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The teahouse was full. Large groups of trekkers — Indians, Europeans, Americans — and a few solos and couples like us.
N. had the good fortune to meet a group of Koreans who also seemed eager to trade stories and tips from the trail. To N.’s eternal gratitude, they also shared a bit of kimchi which they had brought. After several days of nothing but dal bat, even this sour kimchi tasted like ambrosia to him.
While I was trying to warm myself up around the yak dung stove in the middle of the dining room, a trekker on the way down from the EBC shared some advice: after the trek from Lobuche to Gorekshep, most trekkers continued to the Everest Base Camp and hiked Kala Patthar the next day for the sunrise. The result of this plan was that the trail to EBC was packed in the afternoon, and the line to take pictures by the Base Camp rock was 300 trekkers deep. Ditto for the top of Kala Patthar.
This trekker’s suggestion was to do the opposite of the crowd: trek from Lobuche to Gorekshep and then to Kala Patthar in the same afternoon, especially if the skies were clear. Then, the next morning, trekking to the EBC would be crowd-less and pictures by the Base Camp rock would be easy too (no one cared too much for views from the EBC anyway).
We’ll see.
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