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Published: September 26th 2010
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CLIMBING GOKYO RI and onto DOLE
7//6/10: A shitty night sleep again, it’s amazing how a 100m reduction in altitude can give you a good night sleep, unfortunately it had the opposite effect on when gaining. We were up at 5:00am to climb Gokyo Ri, at 5360m it was going to be tough, it would be like climbing Kala Pattha but the climb was but steeper. The morning was perfect, there was no fog or wind. We started our walk like all the other mornings, breathless and with little energy. Once again I wanted to be the first to the top and once again I walked 10-20m stopping to catch my breath then carried on putting one foot in front of the other. I mostly ignored the view until I was at the top, it was easier to breath while bending over anyway. Sometimes I was that tired that I sat and rested on a rock. Once I reached the top it was overwhelming. We were around 460m higher than Gokyo and the village looked like clumped leggo, it was also dwarfed by the Ngozumpa glacier on one side and the lake on the other. Looking straight out across the glacier
Mt Everest dominated to sky line. It wasn't until this point did we really get a sense of how big she really is. Looking to the left and following the glacier to its source, the massive ice fall that bottle necked in the valley made a constant noise, it sounded exactly like a distant beach being batter by huge swells. The ice fall was 5km away so It must have sounded load at its base. Even the glacier in from of us the very same we crossed the day before made small creaks and groans. I spent the good part of 30mins taking photos before Jacinta and Azeret made it to the peak. The view was incredible, it was the best view I have ever seen in my 34 years of being on this earth.
After a thousand photos we walked back down Gokyo Ri, it only took an 45min to get down where we had some noodles for breakfast, packed our bags and started our decent around 11:00am leaving the thin altitude behind with every step. We followed a shallow incline trail passing Gokyo lake and the the 2nd and 1st lakes. We then walked through the valley and
beside the Ngozumpa moraine. From space the glacier resembled a tyre track that had stopped in the mud. The very end held a blowout where all the melt water gushed out forming an instant river. This in turn joined the runoff from Gokyo lake 1,2,3,4,5 and 6th lakes. Standing on a small bridge the crystal clear lake water mixed with the dirty melt water to form the Duhb Koshi river. We headed for the next major village called Machermo where we had lunch.
As we dropped altitude the monsoon fog blanketed the valley and it was the last time we saw the mountains again until we flew out. We started to see trees again and ended up walking into another Rhodadenrum forest. By the time we got to Dole it was cold, foggy and wet. We had dropped 1000m in altitude and the air had never tasted so thick and sweet. We got a room for 200nrs. I had a quick bath with the face washer and wondered whether I would ever get to have a proper shower ever again. It had been 14days so far without a shower and we all missed it.
We made the mistake of ordering
a pizza for dinner, we hoped it would be as good as the one at Gokyo resort but we were disappointed. We sat around and listen to the lodge owner speak about his climbing days. Last year was his last year of climbing. He had previously been up as high as Everest base camp 4. He was sick of seeing his friends die climbing and wanted to concentrate on his family. He said the money was great but it was no good to him if he was dead.
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