Gokyo is widely regarded as one of the more beautiful destinations in the Khumbu. I had been here back in 2009, but unfortunately we had bad weather. The views from a bump above the town (Gokyo Ri) are reportedly 5 star, so I intentionally planned my route through here in the hopes of getting to see it with blue sky.. Plus, this allowed me to spend two days hiking up a valley that I haven’t been to before, and I’m always up for exploring.
On this day we’re climbing up 14,000 feet. Timberline is around 13, so this is the day that we leave the trees behind… for the next 7 weeks.
I was keeping my eye out for them, but unfortunately they must have passed us when I was using the rest room.
This was probably the hardest day so far, although it wasn’t that hard. 5 hours, 6 miles and almost 3000’ of climbing. The lodge is at 14,400’, which is historically where I start feeling the altitude.
There was no internet here so I had the day off.
One of the joys of trekking in Nepal is the burning Yak dung. At least it warms the room. The smell is unique to Nepal (at least for me). Yes, it’s horrible, but I associate it with good memories, and I’ll take it any day over the brush fire smoke from India.
Last night was the first night that I’ve seen a star. It took long enough. It’s been pretty cloudy except for a few hours each morning.
Gokyo is at 15,600’. While I have been blissfully unaware of the altitude up until this point, I now have a headache, loss of appetite and I feel tired and achey. (whose idea was this anyway?) I’m just sleeping the afternoon away, and honestly, it’s a bit of a struggle to write this post. I’ll talk more about the altitude another day. For now, I’m going to sign off and lie down. The plan tomorrow is to hike up Gokyo Ri, which is over 17,000’, and then return to here. If we were going to leave right now, I would pass. We’ll see.
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