Altitude really strikes

Day 9 - Gokyo to Dzonglha (Cho La Pass)

After hiking down Gokyo Ri yesterday we actually made our way to a small town called Tangnak. The trail system in the park can be thought of as a giant Y. You fly into the base of it, hike up, then the trail splits...left goes to Gokyo, right to Everest Base Camp. We went left first. You can connect the two sides of the Y by going over Cho La Pass (5330m). We had heard that the pass was impassable if there was much snow on it and by our luck, our walk from Gokyo to Tangnak featured snow for the first time since Namche. Fortunately not enough to make us turn back. Getting off the Gokyo trail was quite interesting because for the first time we started heading over glaciers. Retreated glaciers actually, meaning no more ice, just lots and lots and lots of rocks. The environment had slowly been shifting from dense forest in the low valley to barren land of dark brown and green where only the toughest shrubs could survive above 14,000ft. There was clearly a struggle for life above the treeline (which is around 12,000 feet in Nepal). But the browns and greens gave way to a landscape of gray as we crossed the retreated glacier. The walking was much more difficult as the trail ended and pile after pile of rock took its place. It was more of a scramble/choose your own adventure type style of walking. I was in paradise! It was a ton of fun hoping from rock to rock, hoping that your footing would hold and that the rock you were jumping to wouldn't move. I got through safely with a huge smile on my face. At one point the rock did give way to some of the finest sand, pure gray, that I'd ever walked across. Looking around it really felt as though I was trekking on the moon. The tough glacier walking continued all the way up to Cho La Pass, which wasn't covered in too much snow after all. The gray glacier gave way to a grayish/black glacier that looked to be formed from molten rock. The mountains that the pass passes between were also molten black and looked to be covered in an oil that gleamed in the sun. The pass itself was extremely steep and somewhat daunting from afar. It looked so steep that it would require fixed ropes to scale, I can now see why if there is any bit of snow on it you need serious mountain gear to get across. The climb up was steep, required both your hands and feet, and had several difficult/loose foot holds....it was amazing. A french women told me it was a bitch as she went down, I somehow couldn't stop smiling though as I hoped from rock to rock. On top we enjoyed packed lunches that overlooked a real ice glacier that we got to walk across on the way down. It was certainly an experience I'll never forget. This huge ice field covered in a few inches of snow that was about 1/2 mile wide and 1 mile long. White everywhere you looked except for up, where the peaks of Lobuche East and West loomed above. It was amazing. So of course I had to make a bad decision. Arjun had no clue what a snow angel was so I had to teach him. Not the best of ideas at 17,500 feet when your body quickly melts the snow you acquire on your body. No worries though, I was too happy from the amazing walking to care. It was hands down my favorite trail that I'd ever walked on to date.

Upon finishing altitude sickness rocked me though. Don't worry, it wasn't your typical kind with the headaches, dizziness, nausea, etc. Stewart offered me a piece of Swiss chocolate in celebration and I not only welcomed it, but I enjoyed it. If you are reading this and don't know this about me, I detest chocolate with a passion. I never eat it, especially voluntarily. The smell of it usually sickens me.

Update: Back in Kathmandu I forced myself to try chocolate and had to spit it out, I'm back to normal and vital signs are ok.

Day 10 - Dzonglha to Lobuche

Easiest day of the trek so far. The walk was only 2 hours and had amazing views of the side of Ama Dablam. Seriously google it for pictures if you don't know what it looks like, but the best way for me to describe it is if you took a knife and cute a triangle out of it then you would have the mountain. On one side you would see the large triangular base that you just cut, from the other perspective you would see the razor sharp summit of the mountain that makes it famous. Both views are very impressive and the trail today gave views of its wider base. Above the town of Dzonglha the clouds framed Arakam Tse for some truly awe inspiring scenery. I've said this many times now since being down, I went up there to see Everest but fell in love with all of the smaller peaks of the Himalayas, like Arakam Tse, Ama Dablam and Cholatse (google them for some seriously amazing views of mountains that most have never, and probably will never hear of) made me fall in love with the place. The most interesting thing to note about this day was that we had completed the trip across the two sections of the Y as described earlier and were back on the main route to Everest Base Camp (EBC). This meant trekkers, yaks, trekkers, yaks, and more. The EBC side of the trail is much more popular than the Gokyo side (why, I couldn't tell you they are both gorgeous) but there were hoards and hoards of people on this side. So much for peace and quiet. After arriving earlier I climbed a ridge that overlooked the Khumbu Glacier (the one that comes down off of Everest) and walked along for quite some way. Interestingly the Italians put a research center up here called the Pyramid, aptly named because it is a glass pyramid for their researchers up here. There is some debate about its attractiveness to the area since it doesn't really fit in, imagine the pyramid of the Le Louvre in the Himalayas. Some love it, others hate it, I personally think it is out of place but who am I?

Day 11 - Lobuche to Gorak Shep

Finally Gorak Shep. Gorak Shep marks the end of the other side of the route. From here you can hike to Base Camp and Kala Pathar (which is the real reason you come up here). Like Gokyo Ri, Kala Pathar is the hill over the town of Gorak Shep that offers the best view of Everest in region. Ironically due to its location, you can only see Everest from a selected view vantage points along the way. Nuptse, which is a full 3000ft shorter than Everest, does a remarkable job at blocking it from your view 90% of the time. Frankly thats fine by me because Nuptse is beautiful in its own right. There isn't much to Gokyo aside from some amazing views of the mountains. Another of the smaller lesser known peaks, Pumori has filled the skyline along with Nuptse. Pumori and its ridge coming down lower is amazingly beautiful. There isn't necessarily anything unique about its shape, its a like a steep cone, and it doesn't have a jagged peak like Ama Dablam or Glacier Dome, but there was a beauty about it that transfixed me. By the end of the trek it had become one of my 2 favorite mountains in the region (the other being Ama Dablam).

Gorak Shep is also the highest town along the route at 17,000 feet. I was doing great with the altitude and Stewart was quickly up to par so we were both anxious to climb Kala Pathar in the morning to finally get some unrestricted views of the Everest, or the big fella as we liked to call it.