Trip report by site editor Rick McCharles.
Over the Cho La 5420m (17,782ft)
There are no tea houses. No restaurants. The Cho La is seriously dangerous. Often a guide, ice axes and ropes are needed. Yaks can only rarely cross.
I may not have been looking better, but I was feeling better after headache and some diarrhea the day before. (All I could stomach was Pringles, the first time I’d ever bought them.)
Actually, I awoke with a very stiff neck, a condition (cause unknown) that lingered for 2wks!
Departing Dzonghla the mountains look impassible.
High, steep and intensely glaciated.
Here’s the crux. Crossing the Cho La Glacier.
I waltzed across like it was a sidewalk.
The astonishing weather had encouraged many guides to bring their groups to cross the Pass today. There must have been 50 people eating lunch at the Cho La.
The descent is a crappy scree scramble.
Everyone but me stopped in the next village, Tagnag (Dragnag). A charming, clean and well-organized stop.
Having lost a day to illness, I thought I’d push on to Gokyo on the other side of the Ngozumpa Glacier.
… How far could it be?
The torturous and exhausting traverse seemed to take forever. Crossing glaciers is by far the most difficult and dangerous thing hikers do in this region.
It was well after dark when I finally rolled into famed Gokyo 4790m (15,715ft).
see all photos from day 14
… on to day 15
besthike.com 