Gokyo

We are spending two nights in the village of Gokyo, located at 4800 metres.  The destination of a recognized trek in its own right, it is increasingly visited as part of the Three Pass Trek. 

Gokyo is well known for a couple of day trips: to a viewpoint called Gokyo Ri, and to a series of lakes upstream from the town.

We undertook the 560 metre climb up Gokyo Ri this morning.  It is just a hill, but at this altitude it was quite challenging.  After two hours of exhausting work we reached the summit and a superb viewpoint.  We could see all four of the 8000 metre peaks in this region (Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, and Cho Oyu.). The latter dominates this valley and spawns the enormous glacier that passes by the town.

Gokyo Ri also provided an excellent view of Renjo La, the pass we will be crossing tomorrow.  The pass is exactly the same height as Gokyo Ri, 5360 metres, after which we will be steadily losing altitude for the remainder of our trek.

Enervated from our hike up Gokyo Ri we nevertheless walked up to the next lake after lunch, but it was just a token effort.

What is notable is that two of us had lunch, something we have only done a few times.  We also had heavy breakfasts, so after more than a week at more than 4500 metres we are finally becoming acclimatized to the altitude.  It’s almost a shame to be heading down to more pleasant elevations tomorrow (not really).