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Published: October 17th 2014
Blog Entry 8
So what did you all do today? ... The Madison Nepal Group (plus two Aussies) had a great day. We reached our final destination (but not our final goal) and we saw the world's largest glacier ... not a bad day's work.
Once again we woke to a cold but cloudless morning. We hit the trail early and trekked through the sunshine over an ice and snow covered trail to Gokyo (when we get home we are going to give a seminar on how to trek through any extreme condition ... dirt, stone, mud, scree, snow, ice ... we have done it all and we have conquered).
As usual we had numerous strip-down breaks throughout the morning (not "get naked" strip down ... more like "Oh my God if I don't get this fleece off I'm going to burst into flames" strip down). Despite the snow, the sun really heats things up. It should be noted that there was a time this morning when "freezy-cat" Kris was wearing a short-sleeved tee, while Tim and Jeff were in long sleeves. She insisted on a picture so that there would be photographic evidence of this unprecedented event.
After trekking through the snow for several hours we arrived at Gokyo by noon.
Gokyo is a small village situated on an emerald green lake at 15,750 feet. It's amazing to think that everything we see (absolutely everything) is higher than anything in the continental United States.
Upon our arrival we dumped our gear, had a quick lunch and then continued to trek to a view point above Gokyo. From this point we had great views of Cho Oyu (the sixth highest mountains in the world). We also looked down on the Ngozumpa Glacier, the world's largest glacier ... a titanic river of ice flowing off of Cho Oyu down into the Khumbu Valley. It was like nothing we have ever seen before ... looking as if it belonged more on the moon than on earth.
As stated above, Gokyo is our final destination, but not our final goal. Tomorrow morning we will wake at 5:00 a.m. and ascend an additional 2,000 vertical feet to Gokyo Ri, a ridge line high above Gokyo. If the weather is clear (and it is supposed to be clear) we will be able to see four of the five highest mountains in the world (Everest, Lotse, Makalu and Kangchenjunga). This is what we came for. Disconcertingly, the people who just returned from Gokyo Ri describe the hike as "brutal," ... two to three hours nearly straight up. STAY TUNED!!
Toddlers ... We have known all along that we are not able to move at the speed of our Sherpa guides, and they are clearly hiking slowly for us ... but today we had a demonstration of just how slow we are. At a strip-down break, at the bottom of a very steep climb, John accidentally left his sun glasses behind. Prem was dispatched to retrieve them. The lad took off like a deer, running down to the base of the climb and running back up to where were in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile we were slowly putting one foot in front of the other ... let's face it ... we are basically toddlers ... mountain toddlers.
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Len Nikolai
non-member comment
Blog 8
So, I added a goal to my bucket list - to land (pilot) a plane at Lukla air strip :-) I'm getting more excited for you as I look at more utube things about where you're at. All I can say is "WOW"!!!! Way to go Kris & your short sleeves showing up those guys! Tim, thanx for the email. Later, Len