Gokyo Lakes Trek

A better view of Everest than Everest Base Camp gives you

This is the thing to settle first, because it decides which of the two treks you should book. You cannot see Everest from Everest Base Camp. The Nuptse ridge stands in the way. What you see at Base Camp is the Khumbu Icefall, which is magnificent, and a wall of rock where the mountain ought to be.

From the summit of Gokyo Ri at 5,357 m, you see Everest whole — and not only Everest. Four of the world's fourteen 8,000 m peaks stand in the same panorama:

Peak	Altitude	Rank
Everest	8,849 m	1st
Lhotse	8,516 m	4th
Makalu	8,485 m	5th
Cho Oyu	8,188 m	6th

Kala Patthar, the viewpoint on the Base Camp trek, does show you Everest properly. It does not show you that set. No other walkable summit in Nepal does.

And what you give up for it

You do not stand at Everest Base Camp. If the point of the trip is to have been there — and for a lot of people it legitimately is — then take the Base Camp trek and do not let anyone talk you out of it on the grounds of scenery.

What Gokyo gives in exchange is a quieter valley, a lake system nothing else in Nepal resembles, and the better photograph. The two trails run roughly parallel up neighbouring valleys and carry very different volumes of people.

	Gokyo Lakes	Everest Base Camp
Days	12	14
Highest point	5,357 m (Gokyo Ri)	5,545 m (Kala Patthar)
See Everest from the top	Yes, with three more 8,000ers	Yes, from Kala Patthar
Stand at Base Camp	No	Yes
Foot traffic	Noticeably lower	High in season
Defining feature	Lakes and glacier	The Icefall

The lakes, and why they are protected

There are six main lakes in the Gokyo system, strung up the valley on the western flank of the Ngozumpa Glacier. The village sits on the shore of the third and largest of the lower group, Dudh Pokhari, at 4,790 m.

The system was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2007 and is among the highest-altitude wetland systems anywhere on earth. The colour is the thing nobody is prepared for — a flat turquoise against grey moraine and brown hillside, holding that colour even under cloud.

They are also sacred. Hindu pilgrims come to the lakes during Janai Purnima, and there is a shrine at the second lake. Do not swim in them, and ask before photographing anyone at the water.

Ngozumpa, the longest glacier in Nepal

The trail to Gokyo runs along the lateral moraine of the Ngozumpa Glacier, which drains Cho Oyu and is the longest glacier in the Nepal Himalaya at roughly 36 km.

It is not the white glacier of the imagination. Its surface is buried under rock debris, pitted with melt ponds, and it cracks and shifts audibly — at night from the lodge you hear it working. Crossing it on the way to the Fifth Lake or over to the Three Passes route is a strange hour of walking over rubble with ice underneath.

How hard is it, and is 12 days enough

Moderate to strenuous. The walking is not technical anywhere — no pass, no glacier crossing on the standard itinerary, no fixed rope — but you sleep at 4,790 m and climb to 5,357 m, and that is the difficulty.

Twelve days carries two acclimatisation days, at Namche (3,440 m) and at Gokyo itself. That is the correct number and we will not sell you a shorter version. Operators advertising Gokyo in nine or ten days are cutting one of those, and the pass this trek does not have is not what hurts people — the altitude is.

Day	Walking	What makes it hard
3	5–6 hrs	The climb to Namche — steep, and your first real altitude
6	5–6 hrs	Dole to Machhermo, above the treeline all day
7	4–5 hrs	Short but thin — the lakes appear one at a time
8	3–4 hrs	Gokyo Ri before dawn, 570 m straight up in the cold
10	6–7 hrs	A long descent, and the day knees complain about

The Lukla flight, honestly

Getting to Lukla means a flight that cancels. Weather closes it regularly in both main seasons, and during peak months the flight often operates from Ramechhap rather than Kathmandu, which adds a four to five hour pre-dawn drive at the start and end.

We build the itinerary expecting this and we will tell you which airport you are flying from as soon as it is confirmed rather than on the night before. Keep at least two spare days at the end of your trip. Anyone who tells you Lukla is reliable has not run enough departures.

Permits

• Sagarmatha National Park entry permit
• Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality fee

Both included. TIMS is not required in Khumbu — the municipality fee replaced it here, and operators still charging you for a TIMS card on an Everest-region trek are charging you for a permit you do not need. The park permit can be issued in Kathmandu or at Monjo; the municipality fee is collected at Lukla.

When to come

Late September to November is the most settled and the clearest, and it is when the lakes hold their colour best. March to May is warmer with more haze building through the afternoon, and the lakes may still be partly frozen in March.

Winter is possible and spectacularly clear, but the lodges above Dole thin out and nights at Gokyo are severe. We do not run this in the monsoon — the views are the reason to come and in July they are not there.

Where it goes from here

Gokyo is one third of the Everest Three Passes trek, which links this valley to the Base Camp trail over the Cho La and comes back over the Renjo La. If you are fit, experienced at altitude and have three weeks, that is the better trip and this one is a component of it.

The Everest region guide sets out every route in Khumbu, from Lukla day-walks to the peaks.

Where this trek goes

Related activities: Trekking in Nepal, Photography Tours in Nepal.

Or compare every trip we run: all trekking and tour packages.