About 10 AM the trail started to flatten out and it was a truly beautiful hike to me because I stopped feeling sick. We had Cho Oyu in front of us and Thamserku and Kangtainga behind us and other big mountains alongside us. We also passed a string of beautiful crystal blue and emerald green lakes. Shortly before we reached Gokyo Village we could see Gokyo Ri, the peak we will climb up tomorrow morning for our views of Mt. Everest. It is a steep 1.5 - 3 hour climb (I'm counting on 3 hours) but the views are supposed to be spectacular if it is a clear morning.
Many people think the views of Mt. Everest from Gokyo Ri are better than those from Kala Pattar over at Mt. Everest Base Camp. There are no views of Mt. Everest from Everest Base Camp, you need to do the one day trek to Kala Pattar to see Mt. Everest.
What makes Gokyo special (in addition to the views from Gokyo Ri) is the lakes in this area. I'm sitting in the dining room looking out at a beautiful lake surrounded by lovely mountains. We also have the same views from our room, just not as many windows (2 versus 36). Our room is quite nice, the beds are a good size and there is plenty of space for our packs and the toilet is just down the hall. We won't even have to go outside to get to the toilet.
The food menu is quite extensive and we had pizza for lunch that was by far one of the best meals I've had in Nepal. It was as good as any pizza I've ever had at home - tomato, onion, garlic pizza. Garlic is supposed to be very good to counteract any sick feeling from altitude illness.
I kept telling myself all the way up today, "just 1,100 more feet today, and then the trek up to Gokyo Ri (2,000 more feet) tomorrow and then it's all downhill." Now that I'm here every bit of discomfort that I've experienced in Nepal has been worth it. This place is so beautiful, we will probably spend tomorrow night here as well as long as I feel okay after climbing up Gokyo Ri tomorrow. We will leave about 4 AM, get up there about 7 AM spend an hour or so there if it is clear, and probably take 1-2 hours to come down because it is so steep.
If I were to recommend a trek to anyone considering Nepal, I would suggest flying to Lukla from Kathmandu, trekking to Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar, taking the pass to Gokyo, summitting Gokyo Ri and then trekking down from here. Also, October is supposed to be a better month to trek than May because of the clear skies and fantastic weather. The downside of October is more trekkers, so lodges are more crowded.
Is days like today that I give thanks for having the health and strength and desire to do this kind of hiking/trekking. All good things are worth working for and being here is certainly worth it.
We will spend this aftenoon like yesterday afternoon. Nar says it is not good to nap at this high altitude so they will play cards and I will read my book. Shari and I just spent about an hour talking to a young woman, Helen, from Scotland, who is traveling around the world for a year with her boyfriend Alistair. She gave us some great information on South America and really fueled my desire to see Bolivia and Patagonia. She recommends the Argentinian part of Patagonia over the Chilean section and says the food in Argentina is wonderful. That fact alone would sway my decision towards Argentina.
Nar gave us some interesting news today. Two Sherpas, one who has summitted Mt. Everest 20 times and one who has summitted 10 times, broke the time record for an Everest ascent. They climbed from Everest Base Camp at 17,598 feet to the summit of Mt. Everest at 29, 028 feet in just 10 hours and 45 minutes. Amazing!
5/28: A disappointing day. Shari and I got up at 4 AM, ate breakfast (cornflakes and dairy whitener out of a baggie) and started trekking up Gokyo Ri with Nar at 4:30. I was going very slowly, struggling with my breathing as always, when I realized I just couldn't go any further. I t was just after 5 AM and I probably had reached about 16,000 feet when I had to sit down. I knew if I went even 5 more feet I would be sick, and I didn't want to do that to Nar again. I have no clue how I made it up Thorong La Pass on our Annapurna trek. I think the difference was that climb was not as steep as the Gokyo Ri climb. My body just could not adjust to such a fast increase in altitude. My spirit was willing, but my body was weak.
I told Nar I needed to go down, and Shari was a little ahead of us so she came down to where we were to get my camera and binoculars. Nar told her to go ahead and he would catch up after he brought me down. It was probably a good thing we hadn't gone up too far.
We got back to the lodge just as Singa was ready to start up and Nar asked him to take me to my room so Nar could start back up to meet Shari. I was back in my sleeping bag about 5:30 and it took at least a half hour for my hands to warm up (another side effect of altitude is cold extremities due to decreased oxygen). What I didn't know was Nar had told Singa to stay in the lodge in case I didn't feel well and Singa needed to take me down to a lower altitude. I feel so badly that Singa missed the climb up and the views because he had never been to the top of Gokyo Ri. I only realized he hadn't gone up when he came to check on me about 7 AM.
I got up about 9 and packed up my stuff and cleaned up a bit and was down in the dining room at 9:30 to greet Shari and Nar on their return. It was a spectacularly clear day and they got great views of all the big mountains (Everest, Lhotse, Makalu). Shari told me that she asked Nar to take a picture of her with her arm out as if it was around my shoulders, so I will pretend I was there. She took lots of pictures with her camera and mine. I'm so happy they had a good day for viewing Everest and that Shari went up even though I couldn't. She is a very strong uphill hiker and pretty fast, but she said it was quite a haul to the top.
We headed back down to Machhermo about 10:30 and got here shortly after 1 PM. We are back at the Namgyal Lodge and Shari and I each had pizza for lunch that was very good. It's all downhill from here - Khumyung, Namche, Phakding, Lukla and then we fly to Kathmandu on June 2nd. We do have some hills to climb over the next 4 days but each day will be a net altitude loss, so I won't have any more significant breathing problems. I still have my cold, but it seems to be a little better and I don't think it will go away until I finish trekking.
I was listening to the BBC on my radio, and I heard the sad news that a helicopter crashed up at Everest Base Camp. It was coming up to pick up some climbers to take them back to Kathmandu and it crashed just over the helipad, killing three of the nine passengers aboard. Some number of other people were injured, including a woman who was trekking up to Everest Base Camp.
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