Gokyo Cho La Pass Trek in February

The lakes do not change between January and February. The research record at Thonak Tso, the fourth Gokyo lake, shows no warming of the surface until early April, so a February visitor meets the same ice as a January one. Day 9, the Gokyo Ri climb of about 5 hours round trip, is the day that earns the view. Our tour notes put four of the six highest mountains on Earth in a single panorama from the top.

The pass is the open question. The Nepal Trekking Routes season guide says snow and ice can make the Cho La risky or force its closure in winter, and Heaven Himalaya says it can become difficult or even blocked. One operator, Himalayan Glacier, describes the decision as Plan A, cross, and Plan B, turn back, made by the guides on the day. For this direction that means the call is made at Thangnak on the evening of day 10, with Dzongla, Lobuche and the Gorak Shep day all still ahead.

If Plan B is chosen, the back-up is the walk down the Gokyo valley toward Namche, and the shape of the remaining days changes. The day table has no spare day between Thangnak and Pheriche, so how a turn-back is absorbed is a conversation to have before booking a February departure.

Late winter is quiet but not empty. The chief of Sagarmatha National Park told Setopati that 3,244 foreign visitors entered the Khumbu from 13 February to 14 March 2018, the highest of three years he compared. That window runs into early spring, so treat it as the upper bound of February, not a typical count.

On the Gokyo side the lodges are the constraint. The 2009 Nepali Times account of a January walk found lodge-keepers' families gone south for the winter, and a February arrival can find the same. Confirm the lodges before you commit.

February flights leave from Kathmandu under our flight notice. The airline decides the schedule from the traveller volume of the month, and the notice says plainly that delays and cancellations are beyond our control. The tour notes ask for an extra one or two days in any Everest schedule.

A Responsible Adventures trekker in December 2017 met fog delays on the way out and wind delays on the way back. Winter mornings in Kathmandu and Lukla can do either. The only built-in slack is day 18, so a missed flight on day 17 uses it, and a second missed flight reaches the international departure on day 19.