Three Passes Trek Day 22

Three Passes Trek Day 22 - Gokyo over the Renjo La pass to Marylong. Another freezing cold morning somewhere around the minus 15 degrees celsius mark as we departed from Gokyo at 6:10 am. The first hour was a slow, steady climb letting Phuri set the pace with his distinctive Sherpa trekking gait, plodding along, a kind of sideways shuffle and only stopping very occasionally. After an hour so there were a couple of very steep rises, flattening out into a mini-plateau before the final ascent to Renjo La, where we arrived after around 2 and a half hours. Enjoyed breakfast on a purpose made bench of stones positioned perfectly to take in the magnificent view of Goky, Gokyo Ri, the lake and a whole range of large mountains, including a final view of Everest in the distance.

After a 30 min break at the top, we started down the other side. The first part of the descent was a series of steep steps of various heights, made from stone, like some kind of elaborate medieval fortress that must have taken a king's army to build. Then as it flattened a little back down to the kinds of tracks made by yaks, donkeys and porters that we've become familiar with. A 2 hour journey down gently sloping paths down a picturesque river valley got us to the village of Lumde. We had planned originally to stay at Lumde, but because we had made good time, and the going was easy, we just stopped for a bowl of muesli and a cup of tea before carrying on another 45 minutes to Marylong. They only get a few visitors here, but friendly people and a nice warm yak dung fuelled fire to write beside. It's also a little behind in technology with the toilet being outside and a short hike across a yak paddock, with bush-style hole in the ground covered with wooden lid, no flushing system and no lighting (head lamp came in useful). Despite that it's very peaceful, refreshing to be away from the somewhat commercialised variation of trekking and in a more traditional setting. The cascading water washing over the rocks makes for soothing background music. Lovely couple running the place. The guy informed us that he had climbed Everest 10 times back in his younger days as an expedition guide. Tomorrow we hope to make it to Namche Bazaar via Thame, should take about 5 hours.