Gokyo Lakes

PeaksKhumbu (Solukhumbu),Nepal

Six turquoise lakes near 5,000 metres in Nepal's Khumbu, with a walkable summit above them lining up four of the six highest mountains on Earth.

September·Edge of season

Sep

The monsoon lets go — normally by 2 October, though in 2025 it hung on to the 10th. Lodges reopen, the air rinses clean and the meltwater lakes are at their fullest, but the peaks stay a gamble.

Year-round The six lakes, the Ngozumpa glacier and the Sherpa villages stand here every day of the year, but the water shows turquoise only when unfrozen, and lodges, rescue posts and passes keep seasons.

The Ngozumpa is the longest glacier in the Himalaya, and it made all six of the Gokyo lakes near 5,000 metres in Nepal's Khumbu, west of Everest. Its lower reaches are not white at all: rock and sand come out of the melting ice and settle over it, so the last stretch reads as a grey valley of boulders. Its meltwater fills the lakes. The colour is its doing too: the water carries rock flour, particles ground so fine that they hang in it and scatter the light back blue-green. For much of the way the shore path rides the rubble ridges on top of the glacier itself. You walk with green water on one side and a grey world of moving ice on the other. Gokyo village, a cluster of lodges at 4,790 metres, stands on the third lake, Dudh Pokhari, and the path runs north past Thonak Cho, the largest and deepest, out to the quiet fifth. The hill above the village is what most people come for. You leave in the dark around four and climb the switchbacks of Gokyo Ri to 5,357 metres, where the air holds about half the oxygen of sea level. As the sun comes up, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu catch fire one after another along the same horizon — four of the six highest mountains on Earth in one view, with the lakes and the glacier under your feet. Getting here takes about a week, climbing through Namche Bazaar with rest days built in, on a trail shared low down with the Everest Base Camp route. This is Sherpa country. Yak trains come down the narrow path with bells clanking, carrying supplies to villages no road reaches, and you step to the uphill side to let them by, because a nudge from a loaded animal on the outer edge has real consequences. The water itself is not only scenery. Hindus hold Dudh Pokhari the holiest of the six, watched over by a serpent, and each August pilgrims climb to nearly 4,750 metres to bathe in it while Brahmin priests renew their sacred threads.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Autumn — October and November — brings the driest air and the sharpest mountain views; spring is prettier lower down with rhododendron but often leaves the high peaks hazy.
Take acclimatisation days at Namche and climb slowly; the altitude gain on this trek is fast, and pushing up too quickly is the main cause of serious sickness here.
Walk the extra day to the fifth lake and its "Scoundrel's Viewpoint" over the Ngozumpa — far quieter than the main lake, with the finest angle across the glacier to Everest.
One of the two permits is sold only on the trail — Sagarmatha entry can be bought in Kathmandu, but the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality permit is issued at Lukla or Monjo.

Things to do

1
Climb Gokyo Ri for the four-summit sunrise
Leave Gokyo village in the dark around 4 AM and climb the switchbacks to the 5,357 m summit. As the sun rises, Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu catch fire one after another along the same horizon — four of the six highest mountains on Earth in a single view.
2
Trace the turquoise lakes on foot
Follow the shoreline path from Dudh Pokhari past Thonak Cho, the largest and deepest of the six, out toward the quiet fifth lake. The colour shifts from milky jade to deep blue as the glacier's rock flour settles, with the surrounding peaks doubled on the still surface. For much of the way the path rides the rubble ridges on top of the Ngozumpa, the longest glacier in the Himalayas — turquoise water on one side, a grey world of moving ice on the other.
3
Give way to the yak trains on the trail
Trains of load-bearing yaks come down the narrow path with bells clanking, carrying supplies up to villages no road reaches. Step aside on the uphill side — a nudge from a loaded animal on the outside edge has real consequences here. The same trail is lined with mani walls and whitewashed stupas, which by custom you pass on the left.
4
Watch the Milky Way over the high camp
When the moon has set in the post-monsoon weeks, step outside at nearly 5,000 metres into some of the darkest skies in the Himalaya. The core of the Milky Way arches over the black silhouettes of the peaks, with almost no distant town to dim it.

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Nearby

23 km