Everest and the Gokyo Lakes are two things in one valley: six turquoise glacial lakes, and the best view of the world's highest mountains that you can reach on foot. The lakes step down the Khumbu valley between 4,700 and 5,000 metres, among the highest freshwater lakes anywhere. Above them stands Gokyo Ri, a 5,357-metre hill with a walkable path to the top. From its summit, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu line up along one horizon — four of the six tallest mountains on Earth in a single sweep. The lakes are meltwater, fed off the Ngozumpa glacier, which runs 36 kilometres down from the flank of Cho Oyu. The whole valley lies inside Sagarmatha National Park.
Reaching Gokyo is a walk of about a week, gaining height slowly enough for the body to keep up. The trail climbs through Namche Bazaar into steadily thinner air, with rest days built into the schedule. Set out from Gokyo village before dawn and, as the first light hits Everest, the lake at your feet holds the snow walls upside down. Prayer flags snap, a bell sounds somewhere below, and the cold is complete. At 5,000 metres the air carries about half the oxygen of sea level, which turns a modest hill like Gokyo Ri into a three-hour climb in the dark. This is Sherpa country, and the stone-walled villages along the route are lived in rather than built for walkers. Most people who choose Gokyo over the Everest Base Camp trail on the far side of the ridge do it for the quiet. The two routes join over the Cho La pass, which is snowbound much of the year.