An attempt on Lobuje East, 1991 |
 Monday, 21 October 1991 – From the foot of the Cho La pass to our Lobuje East base camp: We reached the top of the pass – 5,420 metres above sea-level (which, incidentally, is 60 metres higher than the summit of Gokyo Ri) – at 9:45 am. The ascent from our camp at the foot of the pass, almost a vertical half-kilometre, had taken us an hour and forty minutes. In light of the fact that, as a rough rule of thumb, a reasonable rate of ascent in mountainous terrain is 300 vertical metres per hour, we’d not done too badly. We were relieved to be able to take off our packs and admire the view. |