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It seems we had some snow last night, judging by the dripping water and crisp ground in our lodge. Cho La Pass would be much more difficult today. The morning started under grey skies and the temperature stayed low. We spared a thought for all Cho-La-Passers today as we headed west to Gokyo.
Now, I used to like glaciers - beautiful picturesque ice rivers that glimmered in the sunlight. These days, however, I'm not their biggest fan as they're tough and dangerous to cross. The route to Gokyo was across a "nice" glacier, in Sonam's own words. That's a bit like getting a "nice" kick in the face. I exaggerate, but the route to Gokyo wasn't as easy as I was expecting. We got there eventually, and it was certainly worth it. Gokyo, sitting next to it's perfectly turquoise lake, is gorgeous. We lunched in front of this idyllic backdrop before setting out to climb Gokyo Ri, as the weather had turned in our favour.
I've used the word "relentless" to describe a climb before, but now this word is truly apt. Two hours of climbing up 600m right to the top of this mountain with no respite other than to sit down and breathe. 20 or so metres from the top and our worst nightmare in terms of weather. A large cloud swooped over Gokyo Ri and smothered it to heavily restrict our view. We'd been anxiously watching the weather all the way up as we'd voted to get Gokyo Ri out of the way this afternoon instead of tomorrow morning. Damn.
Not to worry. We basked in the (chilly) glory of summiting before racing back down in a mere 40 minutes. That's better.
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