We passed two glacier lakes that were teal blue/emerald green depending which side you were on. We are at Gokyo Village nestled in the valley. The sights brought tears to my eyes because it is so beautiful and because I feel so lucky to be here. Our room has a terrific view of one of the lakes and jagged mountains behind us.
Didn't see many people on the trail which was nice. The first couple that I ran into were looking for a doctor. One of them was sick, probably from altitude. The next person we ran into was Mairi from Scotland. We hiked a little bit with her when we first started this trek. She was heading towards Everest Base Camp. I got her email address so that we could get in touch with her when we are in Scotland.
We are staying at the Gokyo Resort. It was built in 1991 to be used as a film room for the 1991 Balloon Across Everest expedition. It has been modified as a lodge.
Most of the villages from Dole are run by Khunjung. The only places in these villages are the lodges for the trekkers. The people from Khunjung come up here during the trekking season and then go back to Khunjung. The people from Khunjung have more money than most and are able to build nice lodges.
I noticed in the bathroom they have a car battery and the wiring goes down the hallway along the stair bannister to the lights. That is our electricity.
We are sleeping at 15,584, the highest we have slept since we have been in Nepal.
Nar told us that he heard that a Sherpa made it to the top of Everest from base camp in 10 hours. That is 12,000 feet elevation gain. This broke the previous record! Normally it takes days to get to the top because people need to acclimate.
We will be going to bed early because we are hiking to the top of Gokyo Ri at 4:00.
May 28, 2003
Another tough night for sleeping. I was coughing a lot of the night and I just couldn't get comfortable. The next thing I knew it was 4:00 and time to get up. The kitchen was closed, so Laurie and I had cornflakes that we brought with us.
We started hiking a little after 4:30 am. We could see the sun was shining on one of the mountains. It was light enough that we didn't need our headlamps.
The climb was steep with switchbacks. I was ahead and I noticed at one point that Laurie stopped and was sitting down. I knew that was not a good sign. I walked back to her. She looked white as a ghost. She was feeling sick. I felt really bad to see her like that. I worried but she felt she would be fine after she got down. I know she was dissappointed that she couldn't continue, but it is better to go down then to get sick. Altitude isn't anything to mess around with. Nar took her back to the lodge and I continued on to the top of Gokyo Ri. It was a beautiful. clear morning. I was the only one on the trail. The trail never seemed to end. I just took my time and tried not to look up to the top.
I saw Nar climbing up the trail. I got to the top finally and I was surrounded by high peaks; Everest, Lhoste, Cholatse, Taboche Peak, ChoOyu. I was glad Nar came so he could tell me what peaks were what. It was so amazing we could to be at 17,519 feet and looking at the highest peak in the world. I felt very fortunate to be able to be there and was sad that Laurie was not.
Nar and I spent about two hours there. We were waiting for good light to take pictures. When we started to leave a girl arrived. Then I saw other people as I was going down. If they get up late the clouds could roll in.
It took me half the time to get down as it did to go up. I had a headache, so I was glad to be heading down.
When I got down, Laurie was up and feeling much better. We got a bite to eat and then headed out for Machhermo. I was glad that most of it was down because I didn't feel like I had energy to go up.
It felt good to be going home. I guess I felt that way because we were going to familiar places. As much as I like to go places, see new sites, and meet new people, I always like going home. A week from today we will be leaving Nepal and heading for London.
As we were looking back to Machhermo, I couldn't believe that it was just yesterday that we walked this trail the other way.
We got to Machhermo about 1:00. It was early but then I have been hiking since 4:30.
I am in the dining room writing my notes. Laurie and I are the only trekkers. They don't want to heat the dining room for just us, so I am wrapped in a blanket. They have cushioned benches all along the outside walls with windows. It is very nice to sit here except now it is starting to get dark in here.
Laurie heard the news that there was a helicopter accident at Everest Base Camp today and three people died. It is weird to be so close to it when it happened.
May 29, 2003
Most of today's walk was the reverse of two days walk that we did a few days ago. The sky was clear and blue with great views. It is still amazing to me to be here and to have such incredible mountains surrounding me.
I noticed that most of the teahouses were closed in Dole. The season is over for them, so they have gone home.
We stopped in Phortse Tenga for a break and then started a section that we hadn't hiked. It was uphill and it took us to Mong. From there we went to Khunjung. It was a pretty big village but seemed deserted. We were planning on spending the night there. Nar went to one teahouse that he knew. It was closed up. Someone told him that most of the people are at Tengbuche. I think they are all there for the official 50th Anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's Everest climb. We saw a lot of helicopters landing and taking off from the monastery as we were hiking
