A 21 day trek through the Himalayas part 3 - Namche Bazaar to Gokyo and Gokyo RI -

We met the crowds on the way up to Namche Bazaar. It was a bit of a shock to see so many people after spending the last week with the company of the 5 of us and locals. We were keen to avoid the masses and pushed very quickly past the crowds up the long steep climb to Namche. It was surprising the types of people and outfits we saw on the track. Grown men and women wearing what resembled fishnet stockings made into long sleeve tops ( possibly a high tech performance outfit that would get them up the mountain in no time?), men, women and children of all ages and sizes. What we thought would be a trek for the relatively fit was obviously not what everyone else had thought.

Fighting for a spot amongst the masses

Arriving in Namche Bazaar was a great feeling. We were far from finishing our trek but we all experienced a feeling of accomplishment for walking to the area where majority of people fly to.

We found a friendly, locally owned lodge to stay for 2 nights and bought a bottle of khukuri run and coke to celebrate. The next day was a ‘rest day after all’.

Our ‘rest day’ consisted of climbing to the top of the hill above Namche Bazaar to help us acclimatise. 3440m high in altitude. We took this as having a picnic with bread and yak cheese overlooking the town from where we climbed to.

Picnics on the mountain

Namche bazaar

Brett and I had hired a porter guide in thamel to meet us in Namche and accompany us for the rest of the trek, mainly to help us cross the Cho La pass. If we had known we were going to meet Hanna, Timo and Tom on the way we wouldn’t have bothered with a guide but being the responsible and organised people that we are we thought it was a good idea at the time. Of course it backfired and we spent way to much money on someone we didn’t need at all. Long story short our guide was meant to carry our stuff which he didn’t, was meant to point out some of the landmarks which he didn’t and was meant to help us cross the Cho La pass, which he didn’t because of the large snow fall we would get the day we were going to cross. For the 13 days we had payed and hired him for he walked along side us as an awkward extra for 3 days before we told him we would do the rest on our own.

Us with our porter guide

Brett and I left Namche bazaar with our guide on the 9/4/15. The others fell ill in Namche so they decided to stay behind and leave the following day and meet up with us in Gokyo.

The walk to Gokyo led us through complete different landscape to what we had become used to seeing. Every turn was a chance to take a new photo, every time we looked up we were in awe of the scenery that lay in front of us. When we were tired and over walking we would look around us and the view would be enough to pick us up again and make the pain in our feet and legs a little less.

The walk to Gokyo took 3 days of walking. Namche to Dhole, Dhole to Machermo and Machermo to Gokyo. They were some of the easiest and shortest days of the trip and housed some of the most stunning scenery. We were missing our trekking buddies though and it was good to catch up with them again in Gokyo.

GOKYO RI

Gokyo RI stands at 5360 m in altitude, while Gokyo is 4790 m.

We were woken up a 445 am with a knock on the door. I looked out the frosted window into the dark snow covered ground and wished I could stay in my warm sleeping bag rather than hiking a mountain in the cold. We ate a quick twix bar to fuel us for the 570m climb straight up and headed out in to the fresh morning air.

Brett breezed up the mountain but I found the climb incredibly difficult. Walking 10 m felt like it had run a 10km marathon because of the altitude, and there was definitely more than one occasion I thought of sitting down on a rock and not going to the summit. Slightly addicted to the scenery, 2 hours later we arrived at the summit. We were blessed with clear sky and almost perfect views of Everest. The view we had from Gokyo RI was the most amazing and breath taking throughout the entire 3 weeks. We stayed on the top for an hour or so before making our way back through the snow for breakfast.

All photos from the top of Gokyo RI

That afternoon we rested in our tea house, met up with the others and watched the snow start to pour in while enjoying many cups of tea and baked goods from the bakery up the road. The snow continued all night, we woke the next morning to a complete white out and knew right away we were not going to be crossing the Cho La Pass. We debated over whether to try wait it out and see if the weather would change over the next few days but in the end decided to make the trek through the snow and back down around the mountain. The cho la pass would have taken us across the top of the mountain and delivered us close to our next stop of EBC, instead we had to back track and go around the mountain to make it up to Everest Base Camp 4 days later.

Snuggled up watching the snow fall

Snow fall from the night before

Trekking through fresh powder back to Machermo

Sporting our crampons so we didn’t slip off a cliff. At one stage I almost fell over the edge of a bridge into the river underneath. Luckily I grabbed on to the very unsteady rail and pulled myself back up. Decided crampons were a good idea after that.