Everest Gokyo Ri Trek - Hiking from Namche to Dole
Normally we would spend a day acclimatizing at Namche, but we both felt good and we are pressing on as we hope to cover quite a bit of ground on this trek. We got up early, had a nice breakfast and hit the trail by 8:15. In contrast to yesterday, the skies were bright blue and the sun was warming us up quickly. It was 40 degrees in the room and 32 outside. Not bad at all for being at over 11,000 feet in altitude.

After a steep climb to rise out of Namche, we were treated to amazing views of Lhotse, Nutpse, Elepic, Ama Dablam and a while bit hidden, Mt. Everest. I didn’t remember getting just a good view on our last trip and felt it rivaled the view we would have gotten if we had detoured to the Everest View Hotel. So, instead of taking the detour, we pressed forward.

 

The path was covered in snow, but at least packed down. On either side of the narrow trail was a foot to two feet of virginal snow. It was a good thing there were a lot of people and probably more importantly lots of yak traffic preceding us and pack it down.

Of progress was slowed initially by a trio of women walking a goat they had saved from slaughter and later by a family lead by a six year old boy. Normally it would be easy to walk around them, but with the trail narrowed we patiently walked behind until they stopped or offered us to walk ahead.

After a while the trail climbed about 1,500 feet and our lack of acclimatization started to take its toll. At one point I took the wrong fork in the trail and had to climb up through virginal snow to get back on the main trail. The push up the snow followed a particularly steep section, so by the time I returned to the main trail I was pretty much wiped.

We continued up, able to see a village (Mongla) in the distance. It was a good target and after recovering from my climb I settled into a nice pace by myself. It was startlingly quiet on the trail with only the occasional blast of wind or the crunch of my boots on the soft warming snow to break the silence.

Padam had stated we would have to drop 1,000 feet and then ascend it again. I started to question our lack of acclimatization again, but the views were so magnificent it was easy to keep going. What many who haven't visited Nepal can’t comprehend about hiking in the Himalayas is the most mundane valley is still amazing.

As we approached the village, two birds similar to a condor buzzed just over head. Then, to my surprise, as I approached the village I saw a sign that said Dole, our intended destination. I was relieved and drank down the rest of my bottle of water. I was eager to tell Chuck the good news when he approached. Sadly, the sign was wrong and we were only a bit past halfway.

With a warming sun shining down on us and the porters no where to be seen, we decided to break for lunch. The views from our lunch stop were some of the most amazing on the trail so far, so the thought of dropping 1,000 feet and climbing back up did not help get my ass to move from its very comfortably parked position. Unfortunately, just as we finished lunch the sun was clouded over and the temperature dropped dramatically, so I hopped inside the tea house to stay warm.

Inside the porters were having their lunch. The server was pouring more and more food on their plate like a good Jewish or Italian mom, not taking no for an answer. They were eating mashed sampa, the least appealing food I have seen served on a trek. It was a mashed brown patty of oats that resembled raw hamburger. While they ate it up with great joy, I couldn’t help but think that they would be moving slow this afternoon with the added load in their belly.

Since we still had no signs of altitude sickness, just fatigue, we did eventually get back to climbing.  Our second half of the day was an experience in stark contrast to the morning. With the sun hidden, it was quite cold and just to add to our atmosphere it started to snow again. Padam's assurance that this was the most snow he had ever seen didn't comfort us much.

The drop in altitude turned out to only be about 750 feet, but occurred all at once. It was a treacherous drop as the trail was covered in wet snow and mud. Without the snow it might have been a pleasant hike down into the valley, however now we had to remain totally focused on our footing.

I slipped once on my ass, Padam three times, and pretty boy Chuck remained with a clean bottom. Aside from staying focused the drop wasn’t really tiring. This contrasted greatly once we started back up the climb. As we gained altitude we had to remain focused in addition to battle fatigue. The narrow “path” that we traversed dropped off to a nearly vertical ledge. One tumble and our trip was over.

We stopped a few times on the way up, acting as a caravan, with the five of us marching forward. I no longer looked up for a view, not that there was one due to the cloudiness, hiking took complete concentration. I tried to make sure I didn’t get lazy with my hiking poles and used them on every step, because when you slipped (and you did quite often) you needed all the help you could to stay up.

Eventually, I got into a zone behind the porters and marched on in relative comfort. After a bit of time passed I was a few buildings in the distance, but assumed they had to be a false alarm as I thought we had a lot further to go. To my surprise the small grouping of nondescript buildings was the village of Dole.

We were the first visitors to the guest house and settled in the dining room. A quick trip to the toilet and seeing some of the other facilities led me to ask if we could sleep in the dining area. We were giving permission, which would save us from the cold and more importantly the very damp other rooms. Only one other trekker would show up, a Greek named Joseph.

Padam asked me if I had headache medicine. This worried me quite a bit. He had walked behind us a good part of the day and may have had some altitude issues. Therefore, I suggested we cut tomorrow’s walk in half and give us some time to acclimatize. The porters were definitely happy with this decision. Chuck also asked that we walk closer together, so I think it is safe to say all of us would appreciate a slow pace up the mountain.

We spent the evening sitting by our first yak dong fire of the trip and spent the rest of the evening trying to dry out. My boots appear to have lost their water proofing and we didn’t wear gaiters, since we didn’t know that there was so much snow. It was quite the site a bunch of cold and tired trekkers and their porters holding up various clothing attempting to dry them out.