Elevation: 3478m to 4053m
Total Ascent: 1101m
Distance: 12.18km
Hiking duration: 7h 0min
Today was when our journey REALLY began. Hiking to Namche Bazaar is no easy feat, but we had trained for Island Peak and were more than ready for such a hike. As mentioned in the main post, the typical EBC trail had 3 routes, we are taking the Gokyo Lakes route to EBC going clockwise. And today, we made the split from the main EBC route towards Gokyo. Things were going to get tougher from here on out.
Our past four days of trekking had taught us that we really overpacked a lot for the trip and the extra weight was weighing us down. If we don't want to tire ourselves out, we have to lighten our load. And that we did. We sieved through our bags to remove any unnecessary items, extra clothes, extra chargers, luxury items etc. In the end, we removed a combined weight of about 15kg from all 4 of our bags! We left the extra belongings at the lodge here and would pick it up when we came back 12 days later. It was actually quite ridiculous how much extra we had carried up. But it was our first time doing such a long expedition in this kind of weather conditions, so we were not the best prepared. Most hikers who use porters for the job wouldn't have an issue, but if we wanted to go solo, we had to save every kilo we could. So, well-rested and feeling lighter in weight and spirits, we set off to Dole!
The first 1-2 hours were relatively relaxed, mostly gentle upslopes and straight paths. There were always other hikers around you, you could always see maybe 15-30 other hikers going the same way or coming back down the path as it was peak season. We passed by several stupas on the way there. Along the way, we had views of the monstrous mountains like Tham Serku, Kwang De, Nuptse, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. Last but not least, we got our first clear view of Mount Everest! the dream of many adventure seekers.
Around the 2-hour mark, near the town of Sanasa, we took a left fork towards Gokyo, which officially split us off from the main path. once we split, the difference between the main EBC trail and the Gokyo trail was very noticeable. The number of hikers dropped significantly, before, we could see a good 20 or so hikers at any point in time in front or behind us. After the split, we could barely see any. There were even times when we went for maybe an hour without seeing anyone else from outside our group.
We continued to ascend until we reached a small town called Mong La where we had our lunch. Here, we used our phone for the last Insta-live video because, after this point, we would not have any more reception.
After a good lunch, we headed off again. This time going down. We would be losing 300m of elevation straight going down before heading up again! Although the total elevation gain on this day is just 727m, the total ascent was 1101m. As we continued down, our morale went down with us. Knowing we had to gain back all the elevation eventually.
One of the main concerns in today's trek is altitude sickness. We would be hiking from 3400m to about 4100m, this altitude is where many people, especially first-timers, experience the onset of altitude sickness. Headaches, lightheadedness, heavy breathing, and nauseous feeling are all common symptoms of altitude sickness. Although our ascent so far has been slow and very safely paced, it is still a possibility. Luckily, none of us experienced the symptoms today, we were just very tired from the long ascents that we had to go through. But we made it from Namche Bazaar to Dole smoothly!
The unexpected cold took a toll on us and we were very tired by the time we reached our lodge.
