Hiking To EBC Part 4: Leaving EBC Behind
I'm going to continue calling these posts "Hiking To EBC" even though the actual base camp portion of the trek is over. Here's the usual link to the route map.
Day 9: Gorak Shep to Shomore
After leaving Gorak Shep I wanted to make it pretty far back down the Imja Khola valley so I passed through Lobuche, Dugla, and Pheriche and went all the way to Shomore, where I had stopped for lunch on the fourth day. I could have gone a bit further to Pengboche but the trail to Gokyo branches off after Shomore and I didn't know there were lodges open in the upper part of Pengboche so decided to play it safe.
The morning was just retracing my steps back to Dugla, however the trail after Dugla was new as I had come in from Dingboche further to the east on the way up.
Day 10: Shomore to Dole
The next day I left the upper Imja Khola valley behind and wrapped around the ridge to the west to the Gokyo valley to head up to Gokyo Ri.
The morning was a pleasant walk around the southern end of the ridge before dropping down through Portse to the river crossing at Portse Tenga. After that came the first steep climb in several days but, fortified with the first diet coke I'd found (in Portse Tenga?!?!), since leaving home in September I practically flew up the hill and made it to Dole in early afternoon.
Day 11: Dole to Machhermo
This was kind of a nothing day. The trail was deceptively steep and tiring and the scenery wasn't anything special. Combined this meant I didn't take many pictures on my way to Machhermo.
Day 12: Wasting Time in Machhermo
The next day was a lost day. The weather had turned during the night and the beautiful blue skies I'd become used to had been replaced by a ugly and featureless layer of clouds. By this point I thought I could use a day of rest anyway so I decided to sit in Machhermo for the day, justifying my lack of activity as caution in case we got a heavy snowfall. This ended up being the only day of the entire trek with no hiking and I ended up badly bored and spent the day wishing I'd just headed up to Gokyo as planned.
Day 13: Machhermo To Gokyo
When I woke up on the morning of the 13'th day it was snowing. The snowfall wasn't very heavy though so as soon as it stopped I decided to stop bitching to myself about the weather, threw my pack on, and set out for Gokyo.
That's all for this post. I'm off to Bangkok tomorrow so this is the last actual post from Kathmandu. I'll continue with the trekking posts in a day or so and also have some pictures from around Kathmandu that I want to post.
Day 9: Gorak Shep to Shomore
After leaving Gorak Shep I wanted to make it pretty far back down the Imja Khola valley so I passed through Lobuche, Dugla, and Pheriche and went all the way to Shomore, where I had stopped for lunch on the fourth day. I could have gone a bit further to Pengboche but the trail to Gokyo branches off after Shomore and I didn't know there were lodges open in the upper part of Pengboche so decided to play it safe.
The morning was just retracing my steps back to Dugla, however the trail after Dugla was new as I had come in from Dingboche further to the east on the way up.
Day 10: Shomore to Dole
The next day I left the upper Imja Khola valley behind and wrapped around the ridge to the west to the Gokyo valley to head up to Gokyo Ri.
The morning was a pleasant walk around the southern end of the ridge before dropping down through Portse to the river crossing at Portse Tenga. After that came the first steep climb in several days but, fortified with the first diet coke I'd found (in Portse Tenga?!?!), since leaving home in September I practically flew up the hill and made it to Dole in early afternoon.
Day 11: Dole to Machhermo
This was kind of a nothing day. The trail was deceptively steep and tiring and the scenery wasn't anything special. Combined this meant I didn't take many pictures on my way to Machhermo.
Day 12: Wasting Time in Machhermo
The next day was a lost day. The weather had turned during the night and the beautiful blue skies I'd become used to had been replaced by a ugly and featureless layer of clouds. By this point I thought I could use a day of rest anyway so I decided to sit in Machhermo for the day, justifying my lack of activity as caution in case we got a heavy snowfall. This ended up being the only day of the entire trek with no hiking and I ended up badly bored and spent the day wishing I'd just headed up to Gokyo as planned.
Day 13: Machhermo To Gokyo
When I woke up on the morning of the 13'th day it was snowing. The snowfall wasn't very heavy though so as soon as it stopped I decided to stop bitching to myself about the weather, threw my pack on, and set out for Gokyo.
That's all for this post. I'm off to Bangkok tomorrow so this is the last actual post from Kathmandu. I'll continue with the trekking posts in a day or so and also have some pictures from around Kathmandu that I want to post.
1 Comments:
I knew you'd get some snow...beautiful.
Lynne
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