Today we hiked from Namche and started up the Gokyo valley. To ensure we don’t ascend too quickly, we settled on Phortse Tange (3642m) as a good stop before Dole (4040m).

Coming here, we passed through a town called Mong at just under 4000m, a good primer for the day tomorrow since it will help jump start our acclimatization at that altitude. It’s not like we had a choice anyway, all the trails here seem to go up and down on the whim who knows what, never really following the contour but rather making 20-100m drops and gains repeatedly.

In Mong we grabbed lunch and took in the stupendous views overlooking Ama Dablam. We took 45 minutes before dropping nearly straight down to Phortse Tange, some 400m below.

The lodge we stopped at is a nice place. It’s virtually brand new with the rooms above the dining room which will hopefully movie and extra measure of warmth. It’s still not as nice as the Moonlight Lodge in Namche, but we both expect that to be the case for the rest of the trip

Since we got to Phortse Tange so early (just past noon), we decided to engage in some domestic chores. Anne grabbed a hot shower and we both decided to wash some clothes. This was done as you’d expect, by grabbing some cold water from the stream and washing by hand in a large aluminum bowl. Drying was by line and sun, which of course disappeared almost as soon ad we finished. This left us with an interesting dilemma, which we solved when they lit up the stove in the dining room.

Tomorrow we’ll be off to Dole as we continue up to Gokyo.

Stats for the day:
Miles: 4.55
Ascent: 424m
Descent: 451m
Time: 4:05