Everest Region December 2003 - Day 13

Christmas Day - Over Cho La (Chhugyuma) Pass to Dragnag

You can see a slideshow of my best pics from Everest on flickr.
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Much to our relief, the day dawned clear and sunny, as most days do in the Everest region in winter. We were all keen to see whether we could get over this pass. Going east to west, it was a climb of 580m followed by a descent of 720m. We much preferred going this way. Right: Glen and Joseph are girding their loins in front of the lodge at Dzonglha. An unnamed 5940m peak and hanging glacier tell of what the day might bring.

For some reason, we all had a great time climbing the 580m to Cho La Pass. One contributing factor would be the fact that we had all climbed higher than this only two days before, and had had an easy day the previous day. Secondly, the climbing was more varied, firstly through upper mountain vale, then glacial scree, then rocky scrambling, then glacier. Weirdly, it seemed more like Australia. Go figure...

The Cho La (Chhugyuma) Pass (5420m) was dazzlingly beautiful. By far the cleanest glacier I had seen, on account of having few mountains above it to rain rocks, dirt and glacial flour onto it. Its pristine nature made it a superb way to celebrate Christmas Day. The descent to Dragnag followed a gorgeously active alpine stream, much of which was frozen. You can see some buildings in the top right hand corner. Dragnag was hot and dry when we arrived, and wind gusts whipped the ubiquitous dust up into our eyes, nose and mouth. Not a nice reception! However, the Tashi Friendship Lodge (the only one open) was very comfortable, with the warmest dining room of the walk so far. Very popular, with parties going in both directions, it was also the most crowded dining room we were in, which may have helped the warmth. The owner closed up for the winter two nights later (Dec 27). Prev Index Next As seen on Andrew Purdam's Bushwalking Treasure Box blog.