When I fell in love with Himalayas: EBC and High Passes Part III

This is the third blog in the series of my EBC and High Passes trek in Nepal in the year 2017. I would recommend you to go through Part I and Part II of this series before reading further ☺️

Until now, I talked about my journey, just before we reach Everest base camp and doing one of the high pass and according to me the toughest one out of the three which we covered.

As the days were passing, I was for sure getting stronger both physically and mentally ☺️. This happens to me most of times as soon as I start getting deeper and closer to the mountains.

I am not sure, if I have mentioned this earlier, however I started travelling extensively around 12 years back, and my plan was to travel around each of the countries in the world as soon as I can. However, all this changed slowly and steadily as much as I started hiking and climbing in the mountains. My priority of visiting a new country is taking backseat as I started looking forward to visit mountains more than any other place in this world; priorities changed!!!

So, getting back to the next few days of my trekking experience, visiting base camp, famous Kalapatthar, Gokyo Ri and further. Here is how I spent my next few days

Day 11: Everest Base Camp (4930M) & to Gorak Shep

Day 11 was a big day, when my dream of making it to the EBC was going to get fulfilled. We started the trek and met many fellow trekkers heading towards the Everest Base Camp. We started walking on a straight path within the valley followed by a mix of steep and gentle ascents until we reached the approach to the EBC. The final path to the EBC was a mix of descents and ascents over a hilly and unmarked terrain.

We passed Khumbu glacier on to our right again, along with the glacial river, crossing Gorak Shep (where we would finally stay once our trek for the day was done).

When I reached the base camp, the weather was not perfect and I could only see the foot hills of Everest, however it was absolutely mesmerizing to see the glacier below with its many crevasses, and the overall scenery around. I was for sure jumping with joy and enjoying the moment as much as I could. I spent 45 minutes at the base camp, waiting for other trekkers to join us and to click a few pictures with the group

As soon as we started to head back from EBC, the weather started to clear and we saw the mighty Everest appear just behind us, clear and grand! I sat and soaked the views of the Everest as much as I could to keep the memories with me forever while the other trekkers progressed back to the camp.

I was the last one to walk back from EBC; while usually it is the other way around.

Though I never wanted to head back so soon, however, I am sure I am going to get back to this at least once again in my lifetime, with Anuj!

Day 12: Gorak Shep (5288 M) to Kala Patthar (5545M) to Lobuche

My expectations were high today as I had heard that you get the best views of the Everest from Kala Patthar on clear days. All I was praying was for the weather to remain clear in the morning. As we started, the weather was heavy with thick clouds; however, my guide comforted me saying that the weather in the mountains can change very fast and there was a great chance that it clears up as we progress towards Kala Patthar.

The climb was hard with a continuous steep ascent throughout. After a while I had to literally stop and count for 10 seconds to catch my breath after every 20 odd steps. It was probably more because of my mental status (the fact that the weather was miserable made me equally miserable) that I was feeling tired!

As we progressed, the weather didn’t get any better and we could hardly see Kala Patthar from behind the clouds.

At last I made it to the top with 2 fellow trekkers (with one reaching way ahead of us two – me and David) and we clicked a few pics at the top (still no sight of Everest) with thick clouds all around. On the other side of the mountain that we had climbed, there were a couple of glacial lakes that looked so tiny as we were really high; this gave me a sense of how much we had climbed on the day, and how beautiful would be the view of the mighty Everest had it been a better day.

None the less, we still had some laughs and started the descent to the base and progressed with our trek to Lobuche where we had our camps set up for today’s night!

Day 13: Dzongla (4843M)

As usual we started our day well on time, and my God, the view as soon as we got out of our tea house was amazing. The day was crystal clear with everything glistening in the sunshine. The view of the peaks today was just excellent, and words fail to describe the beauty and the sense of achievement.

The trek today was not very tough and tiring, with a few moderate steep ascents and a few plain patches.

Though there was no fatigue today at all, however, I took a lot of breaks, relaxing and devouring all the mountains and glacial lake scenes around me!

Our camp was beside the steep north face of Cholatse today with excellent views of mountains all around us.

Day 14: Cross Cho-La (5420M) & trek to Thagnak

Another tough day to cross the well known Cho-La pass. However, I must admit, I didn’t find it very challenging as probably I was completely acclimatized not only with the altitude and the cold weather, but also physically, as I had been hiking for the last 12 days.

The day started with a steep scramble up rocky boulders and then a walk across the gently ascending snow-covered glacier that caps the pass. Walking up on the glacier to reach the top of Cho-La pass was different to walking on other days as it was all about walking on the solid and slippery white ice slopes. The final ascent to Cho-La pass just after crossing the glacier was a bit of a rock climbing affair; however, views on the other side of the pass were all worth it J

The next leg was all about descending slippery steep boulder slopes to the Gokyo valley below – the valley of turquoise lakes and great glaciers. After having lunch in the valley, a bit of a walk up the hill and a final descent to our camp site for the day!

Day 15: Gokyo (4800M)

The day started with crossing the glacier and ascending the lateral moraine valley past the beautiful lakes to the village of Gokyo. This was quiet an easy day after the last few, I must say. Just like a walk on the road for a couple of hours to reach the paradise town – Gokyo! Just before reaching Gokyo, the sight of one of the biggest glacial lakes of our trek was amazing!

There were two options today – first was to climb up Gokyo-Ri (which was the plan for the next morning as well) to witness the three cascading lakes from the top in the evening, OR just go around the Gokyo lake, witnessing this grand lake from different angles.

Though I wasn’t much tired to take the climb to Gokyo-Ri, however, seeing the weather up on the mountain, and the option of going around the lovely lake, I decided to go for a walk around the lake.

Witnessing the lake from various angles was amazing, as was being with the group. On most of the trek, I was walking solo, either ahead or behind the trekkers J

So, that is how I spent my next five days, hiking probably most famous routes in the trekking world, though definitely not hyped. Every trekker, who love mountains should definitely do this once in a lifetime and I am glad I did that.

So, I will stop here and let you soak in the pictures from the Everest base camp and very well known chola pass for now. I shall soon write the fourth and the last part of this blog, wherein I will talk further about my experience of climbing Gokyo Ri, Renzo La pass etc.

Until then, Stay Tuned and Keep Exploring!!!