As usual I found myself somewhat separated from the group as I was hiking onward to Gorak Shep. I set my pace ahead of the others, and I found myself in a bit of solitude in the grey, barren glacier valley. The trail was leading into frost and snow, and across the side streams from the river there were sheets of ice. This was clearly in an area that didn’t often thaw out and there seemed to be layers of snow and ice that had been building and slightly receding over the years. I could see a very thick buildup of icy snow wedged between some massive rocks and the hillside, and an odd little cave was left over by some process of years of melting and freezing. I wasn’t feeling such a chill anymore in my toes since I had a good hiking pace and the warm sun had tipped over the mountains and washed the grey snow in light. Since we had gotten such an early start to the day, buy mid-morning I already had the sack lunch on my mind. We had by then become familiar with the chapati bread with jam, the boiled egg, and the hearty wedge of nak cheese. After that back had been crammed and mangled inside of the pack is comes out pretty messy, but no less satisfying on the trail.

As our group pulled together again we approached Gorak Shep, but there were actually a few less of us in the pack. Gaye had actually started a rush back to Dingboche with the boys to watch over them and make sure their symptoms weren’t developing into a serious edema. Matthew was getting a bit delirious, and we were all spooked after young Tashi had developed a frightening condition. There were just 5 or 6 of us left, with 1 or 2 of the group being Sherpa guides. I’m sure we all shared the same impression when we lumbered over the last length of the trail to Gorak Shep. We had reached perhaps the last human outpost, with a great deal of distance and effort behind us. This was the last town on the map, not like when you’re driving through northern Nevada and the sign says “Last stop 150 miles.” This was simply the last stop up the Himalayan trails in the Khumbu, unless of course you were going on to base camp, the start of the expedition to Mt. Everest. We gathered together, already a bit winded and tired from the high altitude of 5,140 meters, and we gazed ahead of us to the surprisingly well built and maintained “village” of Gorak Shep. I doubt anyone actually lives there or carries out any farming, just a few teahouses. The focus really is on being that last tether to reach the world from base camp. There were piles of roughed up mountaineering equipment and one of the lodges had a satellite phone. After fueling up on our pack lunches we were ready to set out beyond the “Last Stop” signs.