Gokyo Lakes

The Gokyo lakes are a chain of glacial lakes in the Everest (Khumbu) region of Solukhumbu, set between about 4,700 and 5,000 m and counted among the highest freshwater lake systems on Earth. The system comprises roughly 19 lakes with a combined surface area near 196 ha (about 1.96 km²), fed by seepage and meltwater from the Ngozumpa glacier, the longest glacier in Nepal.

The largest of the group is Thonak Cho at about 65 ha, which is also the deepest at around 62 m; the most visited is Gokyo Cho (Dudh Pokhari), about 43 ha and 43 m deep, on whose shore the lodges of Gokyo village stand. Other named lakes include Gyazumpa Cho, Tanjung Cho and Ngojumba Cho. Each year an average of around 7,000 trekkers visit the lakes, and about 500 Hindus bathe in them during the August festival of Janai Purnima, for which the lakes are also held sacred.

The lakes were designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on 23 September 2007, covering about 7,770 ha. They lie within Sagarmatha National Park, gazetted in 1976 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, a park whose 208 recorded bird species and high-altitude wildlife include the snow leopard and Himalayan tahr.

Gokyo is the highlight of the Gokyo trek, an alternative to the Everest Base Camp route. From the rocky summit of Gokyo Ri above the main lake, trekkers get one of the great Himalayan panoramas — Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu in a single sweep. The chief hazard to the lakes themselves is a possible glacial lake outburst flood from the heavily debris-covered Ngozumpa glacier alongside them.