Gokyo (4750m asl)
Day 14. 16.12.22

Today will waited till the Sun cast its rays upon us before setting out for Gokyo Ri, the viewpoint at 5340m. It was a horrendous scramble up the crude path with loose scree and impossible incline. It took me much longer than the others and it was bitterly cold and windswept but we made it. It was meant to take 1 ½ hours to climb the 600m of vertical height but it took me nearly 3 hours! The recommendation is to get to Gokyo Ri at sundown to see Mt Everest ablaze in a glory of red but we did not fancy coming back down by headlamp in the freezing darkness. The views were magnificent and other worldly and we all made sure to have our selfies with Everest in the background. We could see the ascent of the Renjo La Pass with its highest point of 5417m which was our intention of crossing. After our effort to scale Gokyo Ri and my great difficulty in descending, we have reluctantly decided to forgo the pass and return to Namche Bazaar the same way we came up. There were only a couple of guesthouses still open in Gokyo on account of the onset of winter but the one we stayed in was run by a friendly woman and we warmed ourselves by the yak dung fireplace and played our ubiquitous cards of an evening. Gokyo had no sounds – no dogs or animals, no engines or generators, no music or voices…only the ethereal low pitch of the wind over the ice covered lake that sounded like whale song.