Gokyo Ri and 4th Gokyo Lake

Today we woke up early (6am) to climb Gokyo Ri.  This climb is intended both as an acclimatization hike and as an opportunity of getting excellent views of Everest.  Gokyo Ri would be an easy hike, if it were not for the 600m that you need to gain, the altitude where we are starting, and the endless series of false summits.

Each person of the group went at their own speed, with Paula and me sticking together and reaching the summit in 1 hour 36 minutes.  The views from the top were amazing.  We could clearly see Everest and Cho-Oyu plus many other peaks.

At the left is a picture of my guide and me pointing at Everest.

 

 

 

 

After a quick descend, I joined my Nepalese guide and porters on "bathing".  This means, wearing thin thermal underwear and washing with luke-warm water that was heated by the sun.  It was nice to clean my hair and shave.

After bathing, we had an early lunch and I went for a solo walk to 4th lake.  It took me just 45 minutes to get there and I was very tempted to continue to 5th lake, but that would probably put me too close to sunset for comfort.  The lake was very nice, up in the mountains and surrounded by high peaks.

After returning to the lodge, I enjoyed dinner with a view of a nice sunset and then retired to my room to catch up with my blog.  My guess is that I wont be able to publish anything until we return to Namche, about 8 days from now.

So far, I'm doing very well at elevation.  Going up slowly and doing acclimatization hikes have worked very well for me.  Although I'm carrying Diamox (and I'm planning to take it if needed), I haven't feel the need of taking it.  So far, I just had had two small headaches which were solved by taking one ibuprofen pill.  The only thing that concerns me a bit is cold.  I was surprised about how cold the weather has been and by the occasional snow fall.