A
cacophony of horns and cymbals from the
nearby gompa provided an early morning reveille and with
Lalu and Nima I negotiated the maze of narrow, flagstoned streets
of Namche Bazaar to join the
hustle and bustle of the Saturday market to purchase provisions
for our 6 day round trip to the
popular Gokyo Valley.
Pig-tailed
Tibetans, swaddled in bulky
sheepskin jackets and trousers, sporting turquoise earrings
and strings of beads, mingled with the local Sherpanis in their
vividly-coloured striped aprons. On
the fringes of the vibrant throng of merchants and shoppers
loitered groups of the Rai porters who
had carried the assorted wares from their villages or the
roadhead at Jiri for sale at the market.
Climbing
out of the amphitheatre enclosing
Namche next morning we rounded the hillside to find the
reigning peaks of the Nepal Himalaya revealed before us.
Protruding above the great wall of rock
extending from Nuptse to Lhotse the snow-plumed, summit of
Everest pierced an azure sky. To the
east, rising in splendid isolation high above the deep valley of
the Imja Khola towered the shapely
peak of Ama Dablam - a rival to the Matterhorn as one of the
world's most elegant mountains.
Forking
off the main Everest route a narrow
trail traversed a steep hillside to a col commanding
a superb outlook across the valley to the imposing, twin peaks of
Tamserku and Kang-Taiga looming
above Thyangboche astride a forested ridge. Beneath us the fields
and houses of Phortse sprawled
over a plateau on the lower slopes of Taboche. A stone stairway
led down to a secluded campsite
amid huge boulders on the banks of the Dudh Khosi confined in a
narrow defile.
Next
morning we continued up valley through
forests of rhododendron, birch and juniper. It had been
a freezing cold night and the many waterfalls and streams
cascading from the hillsides were
solidified streaks of silver. Yaks were a hazard on the narrow
trail - bounded on one side by sheer
drops and vertical embankments on the other it was a problem to
get out of reach of their long,
sharply-pointed horns.
Higher
up the trees gave way to scrub and
grassy meadows but a heavy mist had fallen and blanketed
any view. Encamped that evening at the huts of the small, summer,
yak-grazing settlement of
Machermo the mist lifted to reveal the ice-bound pinnacle of
Kyajo Ri gleaming ethereally in the
pale, metallic light of a crescent moon.
Continuing
over bleak moorland the trail
then wound up through rough moraine and boulder fields to
reach the three, turquoise lakes and cluster of huts and lodges
of Gokyo village ensconced in an
ablation valley beneath the mighty Ngozumba Glacier. The white
mass of Cho Oyu - the world's sixth
highest mountain - blocked the head of the valley.
With
Ang Kammi, my sirdar, I trudged up the
moss-covered slopes to the rocky top of Gokyo Ri - the
5300metre hill above the village - to command a superb viewpoint
- some claim it is superior to that
from Kallar Pattar. Below us on the shores of the largest of the
lakes lay the miniature houses and
stone-walled fields of Gokyo . Across the contorted moraines of
the glacier jutted the jagged fangs
of Taboche and Cholatse while the black, summit wedge of Everest
emerged above a high escarpment.
To the north a great icy arete extended across the skyline from
Gyachung Kang towards Cho Oyu.
On
our excursion several other trekkers had
been seen in a distressed state from the altitude. We were
shocked to learn the following day that two had died of AMS (acute
mountain sickness) by persisting, against
advice, in continuing to go higher.
From
Gokyo we descended to the yak-pastures
at Na then along the eastern bank of the Dudh Khosi on
a narrow path high along the steep, barren hillside. The sheet
ice of frozen streams took care to
negotiate. Alpine meadows, chorten and mani walls preceded our
entry to the large village of
Phortse where we encamped in the soft, brown earth of a potato
field.
The
sun was late in rising above Kang-Taiga
next morning but we were still back in Namche in time
to go shopping in the Saturday market before it closed at mid-day.
