17 March
(Day 7 of trekking)
“Another crisp minus double figure day greeted us for what was going to turn out to possibly be our biggest day yet.
After another great porridge and tea breakfast we departed Machermo for Gokyo via Pangea. An elevation gain of around 320m today which doesn’t seem much until you take in the terrain and the gradient.
Eventually the usual beautiful blue skies and sun dominated and with a top of around -4 to -5 we took it all in heading ever closer to Everest Base Camp.
After passing through Pangka we followed the banks of the Ngozumba River which emanates as glaciel melt from Choy Oyu (8,188m).
At one stage you climb reasonably steeply up to the Gokyo Lakes, well the first three of them. 80% iced over they are still magnificent with the mountain in the background.
There was a haunting 3-4 beat big drum sound that continued for the whole time that we walked through the area, it turns out that that is the sound of the constantly moving ice fracturing. Apparently, when the ice has melted the lake water constantly moves from side to side.
On arrival at the tea house it was time for a well deserved lunch followed for some with a three hour 600m ascent to the top of Gokyo Ri to see the sun set over Everest and the other amazing nearby peaks. Whilst it was a bloody hard and well worth it experience, this one really hurt us and we didn’t get back until well after dark experiencing some extremely treacherous conditions on the way down.
The views from Gokyo Ri were truly astounding, Everest and the other peaks did did the right thing and the cloud gave us plenty of breaks to experience a beauty that can’t be described in words or through a photo.
Finally back for a very late dinner, and my apologies for not doing the days post, we were genuinely almost too stuffed to eat let alone do anything else.”
– Tony
