Day-17  Gokyo to Lunden via Rhenjo-La (12th May 2022)

On 12th May 2022 at 5:30am at Gokyo Lake, the weather was super clear and sunny. We decided to do the Rhenjo-La pass (5360M) crossing.

We said good bye to our Teahouse owner couple and took a pack-lunch packet and set off at 6am. I estimated it will take me 9-10 hours to cross the Pass, at my slow pace, to reach Lungde on the other side.

The climb was way too steep but the weather was good all the way up to the top and I got some nice shots. Especially of the Teahouse and the Everest Range looking back. Of course, most of those were backlit by the Sun rising from East. It was tiring slog climbing up through  several steep ridges at my slow pace. There was quite a bit if snow on the ground for the last 400M going up.

But by the time we reached the Pass at Noon, the weather started turning bad and there was complete whiteout up there! There was lots of clouds and

a bit of wind at the Prayer Flags on the Pass. There we met a young couple (maybe French?)  speaking good English;  they were preparing to return to Gokyo as they said the there was too much snow on the other descend side of the Pass and the girl had injured her left knee after a fall while descending a bit. So they there going back to Gokyo to rest and recover. Bicharey was confident of managing the descent so we decided to carry on. So after taking several pictures we set off going down.

And there was a lot more soft snow lying on the other side. The descent became difficult in whiteout conditions. And I had tough time making out the path down with slippery snow. Though I had my micro-crampons, on it was not easy and our pace became very slow. Bicharey my porter hand-held me in several difficult stretches. The visibility was less than 10 feet ahead. The snow was treacherous and slippery. In a way the whiteout conditions helped hide the steep fall we might have had had we slipped and fallen.

Anyway, we managed to get down below snow line by 3pm. Still Lungden was far away. And soon it became dark and we had to use torch light for rest of the way to Lungden. Fortunately we could see footprints in the snow so we knew we were on the right trail and not straying off the path to Lungden. 

I suggested to Bicharey to leave our main duffel bag hidden in some rocky alcove, so we could move a bit faster in the dark. We could collect it on the next day. He agreed even though he knew he would have to make the return trip up the pass to collect the bag! 

Finally we reached "Rhenjo-La Pass Support Lodge" at 9:30pm!. Fortunately some Teahouse staff must have seen our torchlight and so he came up a bit with his torch to show us the way for last 500M or so. Finally it turned out to be a 15 hour trek instead of the 10 hours that I had thought when we set out from Gokyo.

I had got good clear pics and videos of the Rhenjo-La climb part. But no pictures at all of the eventful descent! Some of those are displayed on this Page. Lots more on the Flickr album link below.

Day-18  Lungden - Rest Day (13th May 2022)

After  yesterdays 15 Hour walk I needed a Rest Day! But my Porter-guide , Bicharey decided to retrieve my Duffel Bag from its hiding place about half  way up the mountain. He left at 9:00am and took a local teahouse staff to accompany him. He came back with the bag at around 2:30pm. Meanwhile, I had restful nap in my room at the Rhenjola Pass Support  Lodge for 3 hours , 9am to Noon. 

There was a group 3 young Bengali Trekkers from India there (whom I met at Breakfast at 7am) who were planning to do the 3-Pass Trek starting with RhenjoLa. They were worried a bit after hearing of  the amount of snow lying on this side of the pass & whiteout conditions ... and debating if they should go up today (or the next day after a day's rest). The weather seemed sunny and good in the morning, but pretty soon the clouds rolled in and weather turned bad. They decided to do a half-day acclimatization walk up towards Rhenjo-La and do the pass crossing on the next day.