Gokyo Lakes and EBC Trek

Our trek to Gokyo Lakes and EBC trek was our second trek with visithimalayastreks.com, having completed the Annapurna circuit and Annapurna Base Camp treks in 2015. As before, the service provided was superb throughout our stay. Our trek was 17 days in length and this time Kate and myself were returning with two friends from the UK, John and Norman.

Our trek to Gokyo Lakes and EBC trek was our second trek with www.visithimalayatreks.com, having completed the Annapurna circuit and Annapurna Base Camp treks in 2015. As before, the service provided was superb throughout our stay. Our trek was 17 days in length and this time Kate and myself were returning with two friends from the UK, John and Norman. We were met at the airport by the company owner, Himal who accompanied us to our excellent hotel in the tourist area of Thamel. We spent day one on a guided tour of the main temples in Kathmandu and Durbhar Square. Our trek began the following day with an exciting and scenic flight to Lukla where we were met by our guide Krishna, assistant guide Ram and our two porters, Ramesh and Yogesh.

The first leg of the trek took us from Lukla to Gokyo Lakes via Namche Bazaar, Dole and Machermo. The weather was superb, with the well planned route affording us spectacular mountain views. From Gokyo, we climbed Gokyo Ri (5360m), from where we had amazingly clear views of Everest, Nupste, Lohtse, Makalu, Choyo, Cholatse and Taboche, amongst others. We had originally intended to cross the Cho La Pass to Dzong La from Gokyo, but changed our plans, with help from Krishna, because of altitude problems with one of the group. This meant a descent to Phortse before heading up the Khumbu Valley to Gorak Shep via Pheriche and Lobuche. The scenery was brilliant throughout our amended route, with superb views, particularly of Amadablam (6800m) which is perhaps the most spectacular of the mountains, despite its diminutive size compared to the surrounding 8000’ers. From Gorak Shep, we took the short walk to Everest Base Camp and on return climbed Kala Pattar the next day, where we had probably the best views of the whole trip. From here we could see close up views Everest and Nuptse amongst many others. The trek back to Lukla was very enjoyable, taking us through Tengboche, with its impressive monastery and then Namche before trekking out to Lukla.

Our trek had been superbly organized throughout, with Krishna and Ram ever attentive to our needs, providing advice and giving us a great narrative of the surrounding mountains, culture, flora and fauna. They were both excellent company and we felt safe at all times with them as our guides. On arriving back In Kathmandu, we spent a final day relaxing and shopping for trinkets in Thamel and were taken by Himal and Krishna to a Nepali cultural evening of music and dancing, with food provided. As a final touch, Himal accompanied us back to the airport to bid us farewell, a really nice personal gesture. In short, we cannot recommend visithimalayastreks.com highly enough and would not hesitate to use them again in the future. Thanks again Himal, Krishna and Ram.
Kate, John and Norman from UK – November – 2017