3 Gokyo 4th Lake

Day-12 Walk from Pangboche to Phortse (7th May 2022)

Today morning I decide not to try  ChoLa pass and so decided to not go North to Pheriche but head South to Phortse instead. We left Alpine Lodge at 7:10am and first climbed to Upper Pangboche and passed the beautiful Orange-Maroon Gompa there. I had been here before. In fact, stayed in a Lodge close to it when I had come here with Manjunath and Premnath; when we attempted 3-Pass Trek in Nov-2017. Thereafter, it was the Upper Trail all the way  to Phortse. This trail is a long traverse on the western side of the Khumbu Valley; with a continuous overlook view of the Eastern side trail coming from Tengboche-Deboche to Lower Pangboche. On this trail  you get a continuous view of Ama Dablam everytime you look back ,if the weather is clear. 

We reached Phortse at Noon and decided to stay at Tashi Friendship Lodge. After a beer and Dal-Bhat lunch rested in my room with a nap of 2 hours. It was raining at 4pm when I got up. Wanted to visit the Khumbu Climbing Center here, that Sujoy Das had recommended; which I could see some way below us in Phortse. We took our Umbrellas and walked down there at around 4:30pm. It was a beautiful  building and was closed being Saturday. 

But the Sauni-lady in the adjacent Lodge called somebody to come down and open the place and show us around inside that Museum. Soon, Dawa Sherpa came down, with his 3 year old grandson, and opened the place. It was a training center with a climbing wall and a Climbing Gear store and display. Also a Library of Books of Climbing history of  Mt. Everest.  A wonderful place and worth the visit of 30-40 minutes that we spent there. 

In the evening that day, there was birthday celebration of the Lodge owner's maid helper's son, aged 5 years. Cake cutting  and candle blowing. The boy was quite thrilled with the attention and celebration. I played the Grandpa role!.  Dinner and to bed early. 

Day-13 Phortse to Dole (4200M) via Phortse-Tenga (8th May 2022)

We left The Lodge at Phortse at 8:00am and went down past the lower Chorten to the  river level to cross over at Phortse Tenga. The down trail was full  awesome Rhodendron blooms of many colors and hues. Stopped many times to take some great pictures of the Rhodies. Long and a tiring climb on the other side to Dole. We reached there at Noon. Stayed at the  Dole View Point Lodge (as we did two years ago).   

Day-14 Dole (4200M) to Machermo 4470M (9th May 2022)

We left Dole at 7:30am and reached Machermo at 11:30am. On the way we stopped at a Luza teahouse for Lemon Tea. At Machermo we stayed at the same old teahouse , Tashi Delek GH. It was empty when we checked in and had the same owner -host  Rai as 2 years ago. Bought a Wi-Plan  here (like  before) that worked intermittently .  While having lunch met a team of 3 trekking guys from Mumbai, returning from Gokyo Lake. They were Mahesh Vaze, Ulhas Deshpande and Sachin Vaidya. They  related  the sad story death of an Indian Lady, an ENT specialist at Gokyo yesterday. She had developed some altitude issue and died at Gokyo . She was in a team of 40 KEM Hospital Doctors from Mumbai and though several senior doctors tried to revive her they did not succeed. A sad story indeed. 

Day-15  Machermo to Gokyo lake 4750M (10th May 2022)

We left Machermo  at 7:30am and reached the 3rd Main Gaokyo Lake at 1:00pm . Passed 1sta nd 2nd lakes taking some pictures. On the way stopped at the Cozy-Inn  at La farma for a glass of Orange juice. At Gokyo had a quick look at the upper-end Thanka-Inn Teahouse right on the lake with a nice view , but decided not to stay there as western-WC were not available there. Instead went to the adjacent Lakeside  GH where I had in my earlier visit here. The elderly owners of that lodge, a husband-wife couple, remembered me from my previous stay there 2 years ago. Bought a wi-fi plan from there in-house router for NRs 500, with unlimited data for the duration of my stay there. It worked intermittently, but when it worked it did have a good speed. The weather was cloudy in the afternoon. 

Day-16  Day walk from Gokyo to the Gokyo 4th Lake & back (11th May 2022)

We carried a lunch pack from the Teahouse when we left at 8:00am. Our plan was to to go to 5th lake but ended returning from a little beyond the 4th lake. This was a walk in good weather with nice view at the snow peaks while looking back and the Cho Oyo massif in front. It was mostly through big boulder fields crossing several higher ridges along the Ngozumpa Glacier  on the side of the moraine wall . The 4th lake (4850M) was huge and a long walk from its south to north end. After going a bit beyond the north end 4th lake, we decided to turn back as the weather was turning cloudy and we did not expect any views if we went further. We sat there (4920M) and ate our lunch of boiled eggs and turned back; reaching our Lakeside  GH by 2:00pm.