We woke to a lovely sunny morning and were treated to beautiful views for the first part of the day. Today was the first day I put my headphones in and just walked along listening to music. I felt really strong and like I had loads of energy to begin with, so much so I decided to take my own route at one stage and climbed up a little ridge above the rest of the group. Was so peaceful and serene up there!
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| Glorious views all morning! |
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| Up on my little ridge |
We walked along a valley then had a big climb up lots of stairs. At the top we passed three of the beautiful Gokyo lakes. Was pretty exciting getting to the third one as that meant Gokyo wasn't far away!
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| Gokyo Lake 1 |
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| Gokyo Lake 2 |
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| Gokyo Lake 3 and Gokyo! |
Once again the weather started closing in for the afternoon. I struggled for the last hour or so and then once we got to Gokyo I felt terrible and just couldn't get warm. My face was super hot but the rest of me freezing no matter how many layers of clothes I put on.
We had lunch then went for another bloody acclimatisation walk up the ridge behind Gokyo. Once again the snow and clouds came in and it was windy, cold and not very pleasant. I could also definitely feel the altitude as it was pretty hard to get enough breath while climbing up. Once to the top we had a good view of the glacier we'd be walking over tomorrow - pretty impressive looking, even through the snow and gloom!
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| Up above Gokyo |
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| On the ridge up above Gokyo looking down at the glacier |
Greg talked me into going to the bakery and I'm glad we did, even though it was the last thing I felt like. Such a good chocolate cake and so good to have something different to fried rice or noodles! Crazy to think of the ridiculously hard life they live at almost 5,000m where everything has to get carried in, the water is undrinkable, the toilets are stinky and gross and yet they can still make a fabulous chocolate cake!
After a lot of discussion over the last few days a hard decision was made to split the group. The weather was not looking favorable for Chola Pass and a number of us were sick or feeling the altitude, so some were heading back down tomorrow to join the main route to base camp, while others continued over the pass. We would meet in a few days in Lobuche. I knew Greg and I were strong enough to do the pass but was not feeling well at all with sore sinuses and throat so struggled to decide which group to go in. We eventually decided to stick it out and do the pass.
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| Such amazing views! |
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| Up above the river we followed most of the day |
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| Heading around the mountain, with Phortse still visible and haunting us |
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| Looking back the way we have come |
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| Pretty desolate this morning |
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| Following the river |
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| Looking back the way we came |
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| Looking down on one of the villages |
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| I just liked this shack. No idea what it's for... |
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| Up and up and up |
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| Warm and comforting noodle soup for lunch |
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| Looking down on to Gokyo |
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