Leaving father in Namche that morning was a sad moment indeed. We had hope that he would meet us in Phortse Thanga, but it didn't feel right heading back into the mountains without him. We gave him a big hug and then we started a new journey and adjusted our minds to the challenge. We made amazing time out of Namche around the ridge and up the steep climb go Mong La. Then we saw the tiny village way down below where we were to meet Cameron and Bogue. Phortse Thanga rested on a roaring river at the bottom of the valley. We ate Dal Bhat and waited for the others to arrived at a nice tea house in Phortse Thanga.
The sun was falling behind the ridge when we finally met up with them. We waited for our porters to arrive and Cameron and Bogue shared some warm tang with us as we discussed what day would be ideal to meet. We would meet in Chukkung on the 9th of November where we would regroup and head toward Everest. The guys were excited to hear that father may be giving it another go and it gave the group strength with the possibility of seeing him again. We split our gear up with two porters coming with us up to Gokyo and one heading to Chukkung. We gave a warm farewell and wished each other luck as we headed in opposite directions, planning to reunite the clans in one week.
Then, after our short meeting, we hiked up the steep ridge to Dole with our new team of Logan, Indra, Osca, and myself giving each other encouragement and building a group bond immediately as we joked and laughed in our attempt at Nepalese words and jokes. We slept at Dole as we looked at the stars feeling lonely and hoping that everyone would alright throughout the upcoming week. We started early into Gokyo and passed many groups throughout the day. Our acclimating had clearly paid off and we were cutting estimated times by half. We climbed over 2,300 feet into Gokyo where we stayed at the Namaste Lodge. The aqua lake of Gokyo was magnificent and Gokyo Ri rose steeply next to the town. We checked the internet and received very sad news. Father wasn't feeling well and his cold had deteriorated rapidly. He was going to have to descend and his trek was officially over. The news hit hard and we talked about the disappointment. We knew how much it meant to him and we had been looking forward to meeting him in a couple of days.
The afternoon was a bit gloomy as we ate in the warmth of the tea house. We decided that we would summit Gokyo Ri early in the morning and then begin our descent to Macherma and over to the opposing valley to speed up our itinerary. The morning was magnificent weather and we slogged straight up Gokyo Ri. We climbed the Ri quickly and arrived at the summit with only a few others on top. The view of Everest was amazing. We also saw Makalu and Cho Yo which gave us views of 3 of the biggest mountains in the world. We took the view in with some coffee and enjoyed the sacred experience of eating a snickers bar in the Khumbu after a difficult climb. After a few hours we descended and said farewell to Gokyo excited that we accomplished our first goal and were heading toward the Third river valley of the trek.
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