Tag Archives: solu-khumbu

Gokyo.

Everest and Gokyo Trek, Part IV: Phortse to Gokyo to Lukla

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Part I – Lukla to Tengboche
Part II – Tengboche to Lobuche
Part III – Lobuche to Kala Pattar to Phortse

Day Thirteen: Thore (Elevation 4300m Walking time 4 hours)

Thore? Thare? Where the hell were we today? It turns out that the map is wrong. It switches the locations of these neighboring, similarly named villages. And, Cameron’s map was wrong too. Who checks this shit? Anyways, today we had grand ambitions to hike all the way to Gokyo. We didn’t get very far! Thankfully.

The day started beautifully with some wonderful lenticular clouds billowing up like giant jellyfish over Aba Dablam. Like yesterday, we were pretty much on our lonesome. Cameron gamely hobbled a few meters behind but still burning up the track a lot quicker than Kate who likes to take it very easy. We saw two other hikers all day.

The trail was high over the Dudh Kosi River and a real upper and downer. We seemed to get nowhere slow. The underfoot conditions were not great either. We really didn’t fancy slipping into the river several hundred feet below. The trail was practically deserted and we passed through a couple of sweet little villages on the … Read more

Fiery sunset on Lhotse.

Everest and Gokyo Trek, Part III: Lobuche to Kala Pattar to Phortse

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Part I – Lukla to Tengboche
Part II – Tengboche to Lobuche
Part IV – Phortse to Gokyo to Lukla

Day Ten: Gorak Shep (Elevation 5665m at Kala Pattar, sleeping altitude 5164m at Gorak Shep) Walking time: two hours)

It was another bitterly cold night in Lobuche and Laura was less than impressed that the posh expensive lodge did not stoke a fine fire in the morning. It is a short walk through meandering moraine to Gorak Shep, at 5164m the highest place we slept on the trek. This was the first day that the trail felt crowded. At times there was a conga line of yaks, guides, porters, and trekkers. It was difficult to get into a good walking groove. We were glad that we were here on a low traffic year since we heard that this type of traffic jam was typical for the Everest trek. We stayed at the Himalaya Lodge, which was a hive of activity with lots of hustle and bustle, doors slamming, and trekkers bumping into each other. More annoyingly, you had to go outside for a pee since they only opened the internal toilets at night. You pee a lot at altitude so … Read more