Day 8: Lobuche-Gorak Shep

Day 8 - Oct 7, Tue
Lobuche (16,110'/4,910m )  - Gorak Shep (16,865'/5,140m) 

Approx  3 hrs 3 miles  

Ascent 1024 ft Descent 300 ft

We woke up early and started the trek by 7:00am. Everyone was brimming with excitement and apprehension ;-) It was brutally cold and even Urmi and Anisha had donned their down jackets. I was the only one in two down jackets and ski pants! We wore 2 pairs of socks and also had feet warmers in our shoes and hand warmers in our pockets! The air was perceptibly rarer and each step going uphill was quite an onerous task. The crux of the hike between Lobuche and Gorak Shep is a series of sharp switchbacks that twists and turns between rocks as you climb almost 1,000 vertical feet.  Fortunately Shachin’s congestion was visibly better and my stomach issues were under control too. Unfortunately Shree’s cough and throat had gotten worse. All of us were feeling a little light headed not all of which I imagine could be attributed to the elevation!

We could see Pumori towering above the trekkers along most of the way. We saw Pumori, Lingtren (22,142 ft) and Khumbutse (21,772 ft) in that order. Khumbutse is the first mountain west (6 km) of Mount Everest. It lies at the border between Nepal and China. Changtse (24, 747 ft) is a huge mountain situated immediately north of Mount Everest. It is connected to Mount Everest via the North Col. The South Col usually refers to the sharp-edged notch or pass between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the highest and fourth highest mountains in the world. When climbers attempt to climb Everest from the southeast ridge in Nepal, their final camp (usually Camp IV) is situated on the South Col.

The South Col is typically ravaged by high winds, leaving it free of significant snow accumulation. Surrounded by grand, illustrious mountains we were mesmerized by the views!

The trail was steep and extremely rocky and you had to watch your step to ensure that you didn’t stumble. There were a lot of steps too. Every step up required energy. There was a mix of frost and light snow on the ground all along the way and it made it look very pretty and pristine! We went up and down several rocky formations. Also saw some groups of Yaks. All along there were these humungous snow covered mountains so close on the right. Lhotse in particular loomed large and glorious almost all the way to Gorak Shep. As we approached Gorak Shep we started seeing the west shoulder of Everest with the Khumbu glacier at the base. The views are now really, really breathtaking!

It was a wonderful feeling spotting the blue roof tops of the lodges of Gorakshep! We had arrived at our first destination of the day! But to our chagrin the leading team had already gone into the lodge by the time Shachin and I reached and we did not have any of the guides with us to point us to the correct lodge. We were loathe to take a single unnecessary step towards the wrong lodge! We were looking down at the lodges trying to figure out which was ours when we spotted one of our porters outside waving to us! We were so glad to see that wave!

The common room of our tea house “Snow Land Highest Inn” was very crowded and there was utter chaos. There was some confusion about our room allotments but we got them finally, dumped our bags and were back in the dining room for lunch. Soon it was time to head out for the Most Exciting, Thrilling and Final leg of our trek to the Everest Base Camp EBC!!!

NEXT - Day 8 - Oct 7, Tue - Round trip Gorak Shep-Everest Base Camp (17,600'/5,365m)