NEPAL DAY8

GOKYO ̶ GOKYO RI ̶ THAGNA
On this day we were going to climb the Gokyo-Ri, 5360m. Gokyo-Ri is a non technical mountain located just next to Gokyo and the third lake. We started as early as 4 in the morning, going up the 600m to watch the sunrise from the the top. One might think 600m uphill is a pretty easy climb, but it can be quiet tough doing it on an empty stomach in the dark and cold starting at 4800m. On top of that we didn’t get much sleep that night due to the high altitude. Only four people in our group out of eight made it to the top. But the ones who did got highly rewarded. When the sun started to get up we were already high up on the mountain, and the view was amazing. It was pretty cold and the water in the hose to our camel backs were freezing. We could see some clouds over the Ngozumba glacier gently float in over the lake, and soon cover the whole view below. The sun shined in between the peaks and we could see four peaks over 8000m when we reached the summit: Mt Everest 8848m, Lhotse 8516m, Makalu 8462m and Cho-Oyu 8201m. We took some pictures at the summit and stayed for about 30 minutes before walking back down for some breakfast at Gokyo. The total duration of this little adventure was about five hours. We were really tired afterwards, and we still had some hours of trekking ahead of us. After a short breakfast we were back on the trail again going for Thagna. To get there we had to start by crossing the Ngozumba glacier, the trail went up and down on loose rocks and sometimes ice. It was partly narrow, challenging and at some places also had a risk of rock slide. Getting to Thagna at around 4700m took the very last of our strength. This was a really exhausting and long day.

<

>

x

vimeo.com/sixweeks