Jam Jam: a 10 day trek to Gokyo
- baliandbeyond
- 12 apr 2020
- 8 minuten om te lezen
The next day I was leaving the bustling city of Kathmandu for some fresher air. Going back to the mountains and high altitude. Flying from Kathmandu to Lukla, the world's most dangerous airport, wasn’t that bad after all. A clear sky made the fly in very spectacular. Arriving in Lukla was a small shock. No cars honking, a temperature drop from 25° to 5° and clean fresh mountain air. In Lukla Simon and Britt, friends from Belgium, were waiting for me to join them on the way to Gokyo. After a first hiker’s breakfast and packing our backpacks, we left Lukla with our porter/guide for the first day of our hike.
Day 1: Kathmandu - Lukla - Phakding 7,3km 226Hm
We left the Lodge in Lukla after breakfast. The sun was getting higher and was starting to warm up the fresh mountain air. After buying the permits at the edge of town we were officially on our way. It was an easy day to start, good for me, as I hadn’t used my walking muscles in a while. From Lukla we started descending towards our first stop. For most of the day we found ourselves in the forest, crossed our first hanging bridge and just enjoyed the scenery around us while chatting. Just after midday we arrived in Phakding, a small mountain village with lodges and restaurants. We checked in in our lodge, had lunch and enjoyed the sun playing cards. With the sun going down, temperatures went down and we quickly changed into our thermal underwear and thick jackets. In the evening we enjoyed our first Dal Bhat, the first of many.
Day 2: Phakding - Namche 11km 1047Hm
After an early wake up call and breakfast - porridge, tibetan bread and nescafé (yes I broke my rule about the nescafé) - we left the lodge for day 2. It started again as an easy walk through the forests. We were still at around 2600m of altitude, but had a fair share of climbing today. Our finish was at around 3403m of altitude. After entering the national park we began our climb out of the valley towards Namche. As we climbed higher the forest grew thinner and we had our first glimpse over the mount everest. What a sight, the highest mountain just in front of us. An hour later we arrived in Namche, the biggest town in the everest region and full with little shops, restaurants, coffee bars and even an Irish pub (the highest one in the world). A bigger town meant a more luxurious lodge, the wifi was free and charging batteries as well. We finished the day again with a dal bath refill menu and went to bed early.
Day 3: Namche - Mongla 6,2 km 756Hm
The nights are getting colder. The top of my water bottle gets frozen during the night. A good thing about going in low season is that they will always give you some extra blankets. I woke up with a headache, the kind you often have after a heavy night of drinking. The first signs of altitude sickness. Luckily it passed after breakfast and some rehydratation. As we start getting higher and higher, it’s important to keep an eye on the altitude. We try not to sleep higher than 500m compared to the previous night, which also means the walking days are short. We arrived at Mongla just after midday, gave us plenty of time to enjoy our afternoon and do some acclimatisation.
At the lodge, we weren’t alone. A group of semi professional photographers were on a little expedition with Pat Morrow (http://patmorrow.com/diary/nepal-among-himalayan-giants-photo-workshop/). A very friendly group, who were eager to share some of their experiences and tips for making better photographs. In just one afternoon I learnt a lot, and with nightfall, the whole group (including us) were waiting for the sun to set and make just that perfect picture. As novices we were pretty pleased with our results, but still nothing compared to their masterpieces. We enjoyed dinner together, tried shooting the stars and went to bed.
Day 4: Mongla - Dhôle 4,7 km 493Hm
Again a very cold night and a headache this morning. Because of the altitude, my sleep isn’t that good. But it could be worse. Dominic, a German guy we met yesterday in the lodge had a very bad night, really suffering from AMS. He got a saturation of 57 SpO2 and will go down with the helicopter. All three of us had still good saturation, so we’re good to go. Again an easy day, we went down for about 300m, the headache disappeared and we steadily climbed back up to around 4050m. Arriving at our lodge we could still enjoy the midday sun during lunch, but the clouds came quickly rolling in and made us move inside. Although, not much warmer inside and our host only lit the stove 2 hours later. So we played cards indoors, under our blankets wearing all the clothes we had. Firing up the stove didn’t help that much either. Their insulation standards aren’t the same as we have in Belgium. Sitting close to each other around the stove burning some yak shit we tried not to freeze our toes off.
Day 5: Dhôle - Machermo 5,1 km 444Hm
Freezing nights and ice cold mornings and a headache - getting used to it. It’s a hard life here in the mountains. We started to feel the effect of altitude. Short of breath and a continuous headache. Luckily, the headache always disappears during the day. Now we left the trees behind us and were walking on a more rocky pathway. Peaks surrounding us under a blue sky, a perfect place. The little towns we passed getting more and more desolate as it is low season now. Most owners go back to the city (Kathmandu) for winter and just a few people stay here all year round, lucky for us. During the afternoon, weather started to change and some snow predictions for the night.
Day 6: Machermo - Gokyo 6,8 km 370Hm
The first snow came early for me this year. We woke up with the sight of a small layer of snow on the ground and the surrounding mountains. Hard to believe it was the same place as we went to sleep yesterday. We packed our things and left for Gokyo and its lakes. The altitude now really kicked in, a headache that would get worse with every step, with Gokyo at 4800m it wouldn’t get any better soon. After a few hours we reached the first lake, what a sight. Snowy peaks surrounded the lakes and in the distance the view of Gokyo Ri. By midday we reached the lodge. We had a quick lunch and got ready for our hike up to Gokyo Ri a viewpoint at 5350m of Everest (8848m), Nuptse (7864m), Lhotse (8516) and Makalu (8485) to name a few. Since last night’s snow it has been cloudy the rest of the day and we were kind of hoping that it would clear up. We began our assault to the highest point. The sky started to clear and we could see a glimpse of most of the peaks. With a headache as bad as it can get we tried to enjoy the view. Although not as we hoped when we set off, it was still pretty impressive. With the sun setting we started our descent back towards Gokyo and a hot meal. With snow starting to fall we were happy to be inside and made ourselves comfortable under 3 layers of blankets.
Day 7: Gokyo 0km
Snow everywhere, even in my room. It snowed the whole night. A thick fresh layer was covering the ground and it just kept snowing. It kept snowing the whole day. We stayed inside. Our plan was to go over the Renjo pass and go back to Lukla. We hoped the sky would clear up tomorrow, so we could try and get over the pass.
Day 8: Machermo 6,8 km
It snowed the whole night. When we woke up we had blue sky, but because of the fresh snowfall it wasn’t possible to try and go over the Renjo pass. Since our time was limited (Simon and Britt had a plane to catch to Australia) we decided we couldn’t wait another day and went back down the same way as we went up.
The snow changed the whole path, the path was gone and we had to search our way back down. Luckily for us, a group of Malaysians left an hour before us and their guides knew the way and we could just follow. Bit still, it was scary, knowing how close the pathway was to the cliff, you don’t want to step 10cm to the left… At some points the snow was so deep we sank in until our waist, making our progress very slow, even when it was downhill. We managed just 7km that day and we were back in Machermo where we left 2 days ago. We weren’t alone in the lodge this time. We met David, a man from the United Kingdom. He’s 70 years old and was walking in the region on his own. A great man with great stories, I can only hope to age as well as him.
Day 9: Machermo - Namche 16km
It had stopped snowing. The path was again made visible by others the day before. We left Machermo and knew today was going to be a tough day. It still was very slippery and not an easy walk in the snow. By midday we reached Mongla, had lunch at the lodge where we slept and continued the last stretch towards Namche. As we descended, the snow was getting thinner and walking became easier. It was a whole different sight of Namche, everything covered with snow, a different experience!
Day 10: Namche - Lukla 18km
Our last day today. It has been a wonderful 10 days, despite the fact that we just went up and down, and the clouds on Gokyo Ri. It has been a challenge with the altitude and the basic life, I’ve gotten used to a basic life when camping, but staying here in the lodges realising people still live in these circumstances every day the whole year round really makes you think. Today we left the high altitude and went back down below 3000m, no more headaches, heart rate back to normal and some warmer temperatures. We also left the snow behind us and made some progress today. We enjoyed a last sherpa stew in Phakding before we climbed back towards Lukla and the first shower in 10 days. Arriving in Lukla we heard that because of the snow there had been no flights back to Kathmandu in 3 days. We were lucky that our host had some connections and was able to get us three tickets for the first flight back to Kathmandu for the next day. Other problems because of the snow was there was no electricity in town, and no electricity meant no hot shower. An ice cold shower after 10 days was the only thing I could get.
Day 11: Lukla - Kathmandu
Early wake up to catch our plane back to the city. We still had to pay for our tickets, and as many times before they didn’t accept mastercard… Always carry some dollars with you. I was able to pay for my ticket. Britt was able to pay for one ticket with visa, the last ticket was paid with a collection of leftovers dollars and rupees. Simon arrived just on time back from the ATM and we could safely leave the world's most dangerous airport behind us and fly towards the smog covered city Kathmandu. After 10 minutes you just wished you would be back in the mountains: no traffic, fresh air and only smiling faces.
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