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• By Monika Paris
• Posted October 22, 2016

Day 6: From Machermo to Gokyo and Climbing Gokyo Ri

Today was a spectacular day that took us from Machermo to Gokyo. It was a beautiful, sunny day. As always, the trail went up and down, up and down. By the time we reached Gokyo, we had gained another 400 meters.

A special feature along today's route was a sequence of three beautiful, deep-blue glacier lakes; the first was small, the second larger, and the third really large. All three were literally ice-cold.

Today was the first day that we were in the company of Nepal's giants for the entire day. The clear weather and open terrain to our right allowed us to marvel at the majestic, snow-covered peaks of the world's tallest mountains all day long. It is an experience that I cannot adequately describe and that cannot be fully captured in a photo.

We arrived in Gokyo around lunch time and sat down for a big meal. We decided that we all felt strong enough to take advantage of the beautiful, clear day and hiked up Gokyo Ri in the afternoon. Gokyo Ri is the mountain that overlooks Gokyo. At 5340 meters it is another hard 500 meters up from Gokyo.

Our efforts were amply rewarded! From the summit of Gokyo Ri we had an unbelievable 360 degree view of the giant Himalayan mountains, including our first glimpse at the tallest of them all: Mt. Everest.

An experience like today's makes the long journey, half way around the world, worth it.