Family Afar: Absolutely Breathtaking

To Gokyo, Nepal -- 4790m (15,710ft)

We were in no great rush this morning and expected the day to be relatively easy -- not a good way to start out! We were all a little beat from the long day yesterday, and, as it turned out, today was no push over.

Slow morning

Dex trying to squeeze cold honey onto his French toast

Kylie watching Dex

After a half hour of easy walking we dropped down into the gravel and rock strewn glacier for the for the crossing that would take us to the town of Gokyo. Unlike the snowy white glacier at the top of the pass yesterday, this section of glacier mostly just looked like a jumble of grey, rocky hills.

Glacier in the foreground

Clearly ,the glacier has shrunk a large amount since the time it piled up the huge ridges (lateral moraine) on either side. For the most part, you can’t even tell you’re on the glacier it is so covered with dirt, rocks, and boulders. How some of these truck sized rocks got onto the middle of the glacier, I’ll never know. In some places, though, you can see vertical walls of exposed ice often with a small lake at the base, either fully or partially frozen. I’m pretty sure these pools of water are a more recent development and a sign of global warming.

Unfortunately, crossing the glacier meant picking our way along multiple paths and repeatedly trudging up and down before the final, heart-pounding climb up the opposite moraine onto terra firma. The last section was made more nerve racking by the small rocks tumbling down onto the glacier. I tried not to think about the large boulders scatter above on the hillside and figured the best strategy was just to keep moving, minimizing our time in harm's way.

Rest break

Success. Out of the glacier

To our surprise, once we’d caught our breath and ate some chocolate, we once again met Abanath as we headed over the last hill to Gokyo. He happily led us to the lookout over the startling aqua marine lake next to town. He had me take a picture of him, Dex, and Kylie, and I wondered again how long he had waited for us slow pokes.

Dex, Abanath, and Kylie in above Gokyo

Gokyo Lake

To finish off the day, Craig planned a hike up the barren hillside behind town, Gokyo Ri, with it’s fabulous views of the surrounding peaks. Meg, Dex, and Kylie bowed out while Craig, Kevin and I grabbed all the warm clothes we had for the 2000 ft. climb. Our efforts were well rewarded as we were treated to a fantastic sunset. Craig wisely stayed put even after the last rays had left the mountains. The sky continued to glow pink, purple and violet -- definitely the best views yet of Everest, not to mention, Lhotse, Makalu, Cholatsen, Taboche and others. Absolutely breathtaking -- in more ways than one.