Since the last update in Thame we walked to Lungden (also called Lunde) and spent some time with my friend Mingma Sherpa. She lives with her husband, sister and blind daughter in this remote and cold village. They lost their home and small teahouse in last year's earthquake but are hard at work rebuilding it. I'm very proud to say that my friend Dan Fonfara played an important role in this effort.
The following morning saw us up at 6am and walking by 7am. We made great time climbing from about 14,500' to about 17,700' up the Renjo La (pass). We were greeted by a young guy from my friend Tenzing Sherpa's hotel who carried a delicious lunch up for us! It was so cool to eat a hot lunch and drink hot tea in such a remote place. We made our way down the east side of the pass to the Fitzroy Lodge. It was more interesting than last fall because there was still some snow left from the winter that required some route finding. Tenzing and his mother have been bending over backwards taking wonderful care of us.
Yesterday we hiked up Gokyo Ri, a 17,500' hill next to the village of Gokyo. The views from the top are some of the best I know of anywhere in the world. We could see Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu - four of the world's six highest peaks with a simple turn of the head. Talk about being blessed!
Today we are going to walk about 90 minutes to the tiny village of Dragnag and tomorrow we cross the Cho La (pass) and will sleep in Dzongla.
Life is good!
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