Amy is smiling. Although she has not slept in three days, has barely eaten anything all morning besides a powerbar, some hashbrowns and a cup of coffee, and has an 8 mile hike ahead of her. What a champ my wife is.
Getting to Gorak Shep means crossing a glacier, a serious glacier with a semi sketchy river crossing that gets sketchier with warmer weather.
These are an impressive set of memorials to many who died climbing Everest. It is a humbling site, especially since most are Sherpas who gave their lives to get rich, white people to the top of the mountain. It is a testament to their willingness to put themselves at risk for someone else. It is also the site for the climber memorials from the 1996 tragedy.
Amy is still smiling. Hard to believe since the fog set in, the path was sketchy since a bridge was now out and we had to go crosscountry.
Since we had to go crosscountry the trail was primitive at best. This bridge was slightly dodgy. Unbuckling the waist belt was a necessity in case we went for a swim.
After we crossed the sketchy bridge, we saw this dude and we were humbled. Can you imagine 10 4x4's for days on end. Wow is all I have to say. The trail was dodgy beyond words and he was trudging up the hill with a steady pace. This was abotu 3 - 4 in the afternoon and the next town was at least 2 - 3 hours away, 2,000 feet up to 16,000 and nothing inbetween. Humbling is all I can say
Foggy Flats, Gorak Shep. The final push was tough. Flat as it was, we (Amy particularily) was ready to be there. We had the single be pasta dish on the planet that night. Tomato sauce, past and yak cheese never tasted so good.
After a 4 am rise, climb and ass busting ascent to Kala Patar, we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Since Amy had not slept for 2 straight days, was exhausted and faced another night of no sleep, we knew we had to go lower than Lobuche. Which meant Pheriche, which meant 15+ miles total, thousands of feet of gain and loss and more than 12 hours on the trail. Needless to say we were happy and hungry when we got to Pheriche!
