Overview
Gokyo Lake Trek is an alternative to the traditional Everest Base Camp trek while still providing the trekker with plenty of stunning views of Everest as well as overnight stays in the iconic town of Namche Bazaar, the gateway to the Khumbu Region. The route to the Gokyo Lakes is less busy but still offers the trekker with an insight into local village life, impressive views of icy rivers, glacier debris, snow-capped mountains, and of course the dazzling turquoise waters of Gokyo Lakes themselves. The Gokyo Lakes are actually made up of six bodies of water, or lakes, located at an altitude of 4,700 to 5,000m in the Gokyo Valley. Moreover, the Gokyo Valley falls within the Sagarmatha National Park area.
The lakes are some of the world’s highest freshwater lake system and have been designated as a Ramsar site (wetlands of international importance) as well as being sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. And if you need any more testament to the beauty and importance of this area, the Lonely Planet states, “for our money the Gokyo Valley is the most spectacular in the Khumbu”! By spending an extra day in the Gokyo Valley, you can visit the 5th and 6th lakes which sit in a high alpine bowl at the foot of Cho Oyu, the world’s 6th highest mountain.
You should expect to walk around 5 hours a day, with one of the highlights being a steep climb up Gokyo RI (5,357m) to view Mount Everest, Cho Oyu, Lhotse, and Makalu. In order to acclimatize before setting off for the Gokyo RI and Gokyo Valley, time spent in Namche Bazaar offers trekkers the opportunity to trek to nearby Khumjung Village to visit the school set up by Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, was the first person to successfully summit Mount Everest. Since that time dozens of climbing expeditions and thousands of trekkers have made Namche Bazaar a vibrant, bustling market town where it is possible to swap trekking stories with members of other groups.
Trip Highlights