Trail to Gosainkund: Panoramic Himalayan views

Views on the trail to Gosainkund are among the best of any trek we have done (although lodges were among the worst...).

Here is a brief video of the panorama high above Laurebina Yak (>4026m*), where we could see mountains of the Annapurna, Manaslu, Ganesh, Tibetan and Langtang Himalaya as we panned the camera.

Gosainkund (4321m)

At top of Laurebina Pass (4600 m)

Looking back up to Laurebina Pass (pass is notch on the left) from Tharepati

A couple days later, in Helambu on the other side of the Laurebina Pass, we had superb views of Langtang, Dorje Lapka and the Jugal Himal, Gauri Shankar and, finally, the mountains of the Khumbu  (including Everest and Makalu).

View from Tharepati (3700m) in Helambu

Helambu view of Khumbu Himal

* Many trekkers simply don't take the risks of AMS (acute mountain sickness) seriously; nevertheless, most of these are lucky and do OK. But many ruin their trek, and, each year, a few die. 

For those wondering, we had no symptoms of AMS on our trek. To be sure, we were out-of-breath at times, but this is normal. We have trekked many times -- this is our 11th (!) trek --  and are careful about our daily altitude gain. Even supposedly "mild" AMS symptoms make you feel pretty miserable, so why ruin your trek? This means we sometimes take a day or so longer than others. But we personally have seen many people mildly and some even seriously ill from AMS, and know of trekkers who have died. On this particular trek this year (Gosainkund), we came across two persons suffering AMS (one so serious he was passed out and was being carried down) -- in both cases they had come up in the opposite direction and had gone too fast.