17-Oct-2005 Log Print E-mail
Monday, 17 October 2005

Date: 2005-10-17 11:20:06
Geo Coord: 27.95365N 86.69382E
Altitude: 15686

Gokyo Day 2: I woke up at 5am with a headache. I think it was because I did not drink enough water the night before.  I have not had to much of a problem getting to sleep, however I keep waking up around 4am.  The water I
Gokyo Lake
Gokyo Lake at Camp
had in the tent was frozen solid so I was unable to find anything to drink.  My porters were still asleep so I found a guest lodge that had just opened and bought a bottle of water.  It is pricey up here, almost 4 us dollars a bottle but everything has to be packed in via porter or yak and are a captive audience.  I went back to the tend and we slept in and had a late breakfast  It was nice to wake back up to a warm tent, if fact it got so warm we had to open of the air vents to keep it nice.  Shawna wakes up multiple times in the night to go to the bathroom and jokes about the freezing trek to the bathroom each night. After breakfast we went back into our tent were the sun had warmed it and took a nap until noon. We were going to go hike to the top of Gokyo Mountain to take photos of the sunset, however we decided to relax the rest of the afternoon trying to get over our colds. Both Shawna and I have a strong cough.

Simon and Nicolas hiked to the top of Gokyo and Nicolas got some great photos.  From our tent, it looked like the entire mountain was clouded in, however Nicolas said the clouds stopped at 5000 meters so
Sunset Over Gokyo
Sunset Over Gokyo
the were above them on the top. They had to hike down after dark so they said it was a challenging decent. We were anxiously waiting for there return so we could eat.  They finally got back and we had a large dinner. Simon was very happy because the mountain height was his personal best (as of yet) and he had purchased a patch to put on his backpack to record the summit.  The cook staff made pizza and soup. It was very good change from the normal cabbage, kale, and potatoes.  In the evening they are just bright enough to see but not bright enough to read.  Everyone in the lodge uses headlamps to read their books.  We have a half-day hike tomorrow to get to our next camp to prep for the Cholo Pass.  There is no electricity in Gokyo so all the lights are solar powered that charge during the day.  I have recharged my laptop and type away before sending the YakLog.  Having a laptop seems to be a huge novelty and I often end up having a local kid glued to my side as I type.

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