Himalayan Trek Part 3

Day 7 – Gokyo Ri 19.05

The One You've Been Waiting For...

Today is the big day! Today we would climb to 5360m, and we would see the sun rise over Mt Everest! We woke up at 3.45am went off in search of our guide, who was still asleep. We had to wake someone up to help us find him, as the guides and porters sleep in rooms with several people inside. Once we had our guide, our puff daddy jackets and our torches, we were ready to set off at 4.30am. A little way into the distance, we could see one other set of torches. The Japanese guy had left with his guide ahead of us. We had to cross a river in the dark, by jumping from stone to stone. It was a little difficult as we were still half asleep.

We finally reached the mountain, and realized after a short walk, that this was going to be a very difficult climb. Loren’s head still hurt like crazy, and we were frequently out of breath from the altitude. Just like when we were climbing in Namche Bazar, we kept thinking that we could see the top, and that there wasn’t far to go, but we had barely made it halfway.

It was so cold, that the water in the tube of our camel backs froze! We had to bend the tube and bite the nozzle to loosen the ice, so we could drink on the way up. We didn’t need our puff jackets yet, because the climbing was very difficult, and we were very hot under our clothes, but our uncovered faces and lips were quite stiff from the cold. It was hard to talk. The moss and grass was covered with a light layer of snow from the night before, but the snow on the dirt had melted into the ground.

At around 5.15am, Narendra pointed out a mountain that was barely visible as it peeked around another mountain, and told us that this was Mt Everest! This was the first time we had been able to glimpse it, for the whole trip, and after seeing Klaus’ cloudy photos, Artur was worried that this was the best view we’d have. So he stopped Loren, and told her he had a question for her. He said, ‘Will you marry me?’. Loren said, ‘yes!’, and had a few tears of joy. She was completely surprised, she had no idea he was going to ask. Then he pulled a little box out of his backpack, and gave her a solitaire diamond ring. Our fingers were swollen from our strenuous walking, but the ring fit, and still fits perfectly.

We were both very puffed, and our faces were quite frozen, but we were very happy! We had seen the biggest mountain in the world (or so we thought), and we had declared our eternal love for each other, the biggest, highest love in the world. Running on the exhilaration of the engagement, we climbed the rest of the way up the mountain. It was still a long and difficult climb before we reached the top, so we had to put our minds to the task and save the celebrations for the summit.

The 'Real' Mt Everest, starting to appear as we climbed higher

On the way, Narendra told us he had made a mistake, and Mt Everest was another mountain that was just now appearing. We had a laugh, and took lots of photos of the real Mt Everest.

Finally we reached the top! We quickly rugged up in our puff jackets and beanies, and then stood in awe of our spectacular surroundings. On every side, we could see the enormous peaks of the highest mountains in the world! They were glistening white with snow, and reflecting the light of the rising sun. Mount Everest towered before us, now the tallest mountain on the horizon. Gokyo village was a tiny speckle of houses below us, and the lake was even more beautiful from above. We were so lucky with the weather, we had a good 30 minutes of clear sky and incredible 360 degree views.

It is quite difficult to adequately describe that 30 minutes. Some of the pictures might give a small idea of what it was like to be up there, but even the best picture cannot describe the sound of the wind as it rushed around us, the crisp air on our faces, and the idea of being so close to the top of the world with your beloved. This is something that neither of us will ever forget.

As we stared at the mountains surrounding us, our guide told us each of their names and how tall they were. Some of the best ones that we could see, apart from Mt Everest of course, were Lhotse, Makalu and Ama Dablam We could also see the glacier that was hidden from us the night before, and all three of the lakes that we had walked past on the way to Gokyo.

Not far from us, the Japanese guy who had arrived before us, was sitting on a rock facing Mt Everest, and meditating. If you’re into meditation, this is definitely the place to do it. You are so far away from normal life and you are surrounded by some of the most beautiful views that the world has to offer. Despite this, Loren had some fun imitating the guys pose. Eventually he and his guide headed back down the mountain, leaving just Artur, Loren and Narendra, alone looking over the top of the world.

Loren imitating the Japanese guy

At 6.15am, the clouds started to appear and obscured the horizon. So the newly engaged couple began their descent to Gokyo village. On the way, we met the usual suspects: Elad the Israeli guy, the dog from the climb the day before, and the big group of Canadians, we also saw the dysfunctional couple from the room next to ours at the tea house. We exchanged email addresses with Elad, and he told us that the dog had been following him and the group of Phillipino trekkers that he was now trekking with, all the way from Namche Bazar! Everyone was hoping there was still a view at the top of the mountain, but they all left too late to see anything.

The trek back to Dole

We had some breakfast when we got back down the mountain, then had a 1.5 hour nap, before we headed off for the long trek back to Dole. All together our walk today was supposed to be 9 hours, but we did it in 6.5! It took us 3.5 hours to go up and down Gokyo Ri, and 3 hours for us to trek from Gokyo to Machchermo to Dole. We were quite proud of ourselves.

The walk was quite cold, and it rained and snowed a little on our way. There wasn’t much visibility of the surrounding mountains, but we’d had more than our share of mountain views that morning. We were very glad to arrive at the tea house, thrilled that most of the hard work was behind us.

The tea house was very busy that night, and we chatted for a while to some Indian guys who live in Arizona. Later, Loren and Artur played cards with Narendra, and tried some local millet wine. Once again Loren won every game, which pissed Artur off immensely J We went to bed quite early, as we were exhausted from our big day.