Category: Asia

After visiting remote Gokyo Lake V and scrambling up Gokyo Ri, it was time to cross Renjo Pass, one of the famous passes in the Khumbu/Everest region – considered the easies and with best panoramic view of the high mountains. With perfect weather we were not disappointed!

From Gokyo to Lunden (a.k.a. Lungden or  Lumde, first village with lodges on the other side of the pass )  is ~11 km, 4.5 km and 600 m up to Renjo La, and then 1000 m down. Our porter-guide hired for half a day helped us carry the load up, so we could relax and enjoy the scenery. We also wanted to reach the pass as early as possible, as the weather pattern with clouds in the afternoon was what we were getting every day. The trail is relatively easy (without backpacks) with some steep sectors. The ascent is nicer and easier (although longer) than Gokyo Ri. We were on the pass before the clouds and the views were amazing, best panorama on our trek.  We spent an hour at the pass in perfect weather, sun and no wind, admiring the views.

View from Renjo La

View from Renjo La

 
There were probably 40-50 people on the trail that morning. We started hiking shortly after sunrise in subzero temps ( -6℃), but we warmed up quickly when the Sun got higher (in some quiet spots to above 20℃). Hiked down a steep section of the trail rebuilt after 2015 earthquake, took back our backpacks, had lunch at a lake near the base of the pass, and continued to Lunden. Despite heavy cloud cover and temps dropping below freezing again, it was very nice hike down the beautiful Renjo Khola valley with quite magical views of the mountains appearing/disappearing quickly between clouds. We took a wrong path towards Arye (we knew about the “Y”), but quickly realized the mistake and crossed some pastures to return to the correct trail – we surprised yak herder (who spoke perfect English) when we showed up on his pasture out of nowhere. We spent the night at a newly renovated and good Renjo Pass Support Lodge (recommended) with several other hikers who also came down from the pass. Nice rooms with (small) toilets. Very nice host. One fellow hiker was recovering from a bout of altitude sickness after being helped down the mountain (failed attempt to cross Renjo pass).  The next day it was easy and lazy/slow hike down the Bhote Koshi valley, along an old trading route from Tibet. Nice villages, very few people on the trail.  From Lunden to Thame is another 9.5 km. We were too lazy to visit Thame gompa, just looked from the ridge. Stayed in nice Valley View Lodge and played with giggly owner’s daughter. We were the only guests. Thame is a big and nice village. We used our reserve day earlier so no day hike towards Tashi Labsta.

We started from Khumjung in very nice weather, but soon clouds came in and we hiked in fog most of the day. At 4000 masl and with Sun behind heavy clouds it was quite cold, small streams and waterfalls were frozen on the surface. We were now hiking north up the Dudh Koshi valley towards Ngozumpa Glacier. The tourist crowd disappeared as the main trail to EBC turns East/North-East after Namche. We passed Mong La (pass) and stayed for the night in Dole at Alpine Cottage Lodge (looked good from the outside, but it was our coldest night with temp in the room dropping to -1°C). The good weather returned the next day, sunny mornings but still clouds every  afternoon, as we continued to Machermo.  Nice day, good views, nice trail in the valley, not crowded at all, relaxing. Very good Sherpa Land Lodge with nice hosts, great atmosphere, the warmest fire of the entire trek. We are gaining altitude. Again very nice walk next day to Gokyo with stops at Lake I and II. Hike from Khumjung to Gokyo (two days) = ~ 20 km. Since we heard that sometimes there were not enough rooms in Gokyo available for late comers, we reserved Cho Oyu View Lodge – it had empty rooms, but other lodges were full. It was OK, but old and quite cold (again ~ 0°C at night in our room). We were both fighting Khumbu cough and cold, so we decided to moved for second and third night to (new) Thanka Inn with insulated walls and sealed windows. It was more expensive, but so much warmer – it was 8°C at night! And food was delicious.

We planned two day hikes from Gokyo: to Lake V and possibly Lake VI, and summiting Gokyo Ri. We went for a relaxed walk to Lake V first despite discouraging weather which made some other hikers turn back. It was a great day (with packed lunch), wonderful views of Ngozumpa glacier, Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse.  View of Everest was the excellent from this angle. One of the best days of the trek. Lake VI was beyond our reach, we ran out of time as we spent a lot of time around the lower lakes and on the side moraine watching the glacier and all the big mountains around. Taking pictures. We were almost alone there. Quite stunning views from the moraine above the lake (Scoundrel’s Point).

Ngozumpa Glacier view from Scoundrel’s Point

Ngozumpa Glacier view from Scoundrel’s Point

 
Hike from Gokyo to Lake V and back = ~ 12 km. The next day Joanna made it to Gokyo Ri summit. I took my rest day and slept most of the day. Gokyi Ri trail is short (~4 km round trip) but very steep  (600 m altitude gain), straightforward but  strenuous hike. The views on the way up and from the top were great –  four 8000 m peaks (Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu), lakes and the glacier. Clouds started coming in up the valley when I was approaching the summit, making for some interesting photos. I stayed there about an hour.

View from Gokyo Ri

View from Gokyo Ri

 
There was no wind.Very few or at times no people at the top (I started later than most). Going down was much easier and fast. The clouds were  getting quite thick in the afternoon. Long sleep in warm room, and Piotr started recovering from the cough.

We were quite lucky as a group of guides/porters who came with tourist staying in our lodge had a break the next day and one of them agreed to help us carry our stuff up to Renjo La pass after looking at and weighing our backpacks in his hands:  “Oh, daypacks”.  It made us feel good as we really tried to travel light (most of our warm clothes were on us at this point). He was actually a porter guide and spoke good english.

The hike from Monjo to Namche is short,  just 5 km, but quite steep in places as we were gaining 560 m, very crowded in the morning. After checking-in Khumbu Lodge, we walked to  Sagarmatha National Park Headquarters located on a hill just outside Namche – great views of the surrounding mountains. Visited Namche Bakery for sweets and coffee, and to recharge batteries (for free). Namche is nice despite being packed with tourists, but we decided to go to Khumjung the next day and stay there for the night rather than visiting Khumjung and Khunde as a day trip. Only ~ 3 km hike on one of many local trails. Very good decision. Better for acclimatization (3763 masl) and good starting point for the hike to Dole next day. Nice Sherpa village, good lodge, sunny/warm room, fewer tourists. We visited Nauche (Namche) Gompa on the way and walked around Khumjung and to its gompa after lunch. Hidden Village Lodge (recommended)  was an excellent choice. We were the only guests the first night and had good dinnertime talk with our host. There were two groups in our lodge for the second night, but it remained friendly and clean. The lodge and many other buildings are new as the village was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake.  In the end we decided to stay yet another day in Khumjung, Joanna took her rest day and I wondered around a bit visiting Khunde.  Both villages are very pretty, real villages with school, hospital, monasteries, fields, yaks, fewer tourists. I took advantage of sunny weather to do some laundry, in a big bucket, taking water from the central village faucet. Made some people laugh. Sun or not it took 3 days to dry our stuff. Ended the day walking up a small hill to take sunset photos of the mountains – no luck as clouds moved in. At these altitudes it can get cold, but when the Sun is out it feels almost like summer and the weather was quite warm that year, we were told. The lowest temp we were exposed to so far was 4℃ in our room at night in Monjo. We are in real mountains now with nearby peaks  6000 – 7000 m high and some 8000 m peaks not far away.

For the next 3 days we hiked along Dudh Koshi River, kind of, because steep slopes of the valley often push the trail far and high: from Jubing  to Khare, Surke  and Monjo  passing several other villages on the way, with many lodges and restaurants to stop for the night or just short breaks. Some parts of the trail were very nice, some not so much – the same trail is used to deliver goods to Namche by mules. We visited monastery in Kharikhola and stopped for a break in Bupsa. We spent the night in the most popular lodge in Khare. On the not so interesting section to Surke, we still got good views of the Dudh Koshi Valley, good lunch in Paiya and  a first glimpse of high mountains (towards Kusum Kanguru massif) in late afternoon light.  In Surke we stayed in Thamserku Lodge (OK, but not very good, shower in sister lodge Namaste). Two other lodges we checked were already full when we arrived. The next day, we walked through beautiful Chaurikharka. In Cheplung we merged with heavy tourist traffic to/from Lukla – happy madness. Some groups were 30-50 strong. Difficult to keep your own hiking pace. By the time we finished lunch in Thadokosi, with nice views from the restaurant terrace, all the groups were pretty much gone. The traffic got lighter in the afternoon as most people trekking from Lukla stayed in Phakding. We continued to Monjo. We had nice room with bathroom at quite large Mount Kailash Lodge (good food, not enough sun to power solar panels for water heaters). 

The first 5 days from Phaplu ( 2479 masl) to Monjo ( 2870 masl) we walked 56 kms and felt like we were conquering some “serious” mountains, because the trail was going up and down all the time (1500 – 3100 masl), but in the end we gained only 400 m in altitude. We were a day behind our plan already (= lost reserve day allocated for a day-hike in Thame), but our plan was to warm-up slowly before we go higher and hiking was getting easier every day. 

Phaplu at the end of paved road and with small airstrip is one of the entry points to the Khumbu (Everest) region. Most people fly to Lukla further up Dudh Koshi (river) to shorten their walk to EBC or Gokyo, but supplies and luggage is often carried by porters and mules from Phaplu or Nunthala.

We are on the move.  First, it was an easy and relaxing walk on mountain road along broad valley to small village  Ringmu. We were passed by only 3 or 4 jeeps carrying porters with their load heading to Nunthala. The jeep road under construction ended there when we visited. We met only 4 hikers with backpacks. In Ringmu we joined popular trail from Jiri (marked with orange circles, other trails we walked were not marked, but navigation was easy).  Then we hiked up on paved steep trail over Taksindu La  (pass, 3066 masl) to Taksindu. It was as far as we could walk on the first day, although the original plan was to push on to Nunthala. Somehow we could not stick to the original plan to walk a few extra kms to Chiwong the day before, even though we arrived in Phaplu surprisingly early. And now we were half a day behind our plan. We stayed at nicely renovated Taksindu Resort Lodge. We visited Taksindu Gompa (monastery) and watched a bit the evening puja, and then walked around again in the morning.

Taksindu Gompa

Taksindu Gompa

 
The following day we rolled down to Dudh Koshi = leg-tiring 1400 m drop in altitude, and after crossing the river and walking up the hill for a while, we parked for the night  at Gorkhali Lodge in Jubing. On the way, we stopped in Nunthala for lunch and to break long descent. Jubing is a nice village with green fields and flowers, good dal bhat with unusual local veggies at the lodge. We walked 23 km the first two days.