Report from Lottie:
The first time in 5 days we’ve had any form of communication. We had to get from one valley to another over the Cho La Pass which at it’s highest point is 18,500ft – did I say climbing Gokyo Ri was the hardest thing I’ve ever done? Well it pales into insignificance compared to this! The climb started out fairly well, a slow and steady climb up, before the path gave way to huge boulders we had to clamber over. These ranged in size from a terrace house to a family size car: it was completely unforgiving and utterly exhausting.
After a few hours of this, we came out onto a plateau of snow and had to start making our way down the pass. This became really scary as we were walking on snow melting from the fierce sun with sheer ice beneath. We were walking on a track along the side of the mountain no more than 6 inches wide, and a sheer drop down the mountain. If your foot failed – the consequences would be bad! I was genuinely scared, and for probably 4 hours of today knew every step I took had to be perfect. All this combined with the effects of altitude made this a day I’ll never ever forget.
We arrived at our dingy lodge mid afternoon, the four of us spent the afternoon discussing our dream meals – we have all lost our appetites and the lodge food is really bad – but more by luck than judgement we ordered a great vegetable noodle soup – doesn’t sound exciting, but it was to us!