Cho La

Cho La info, ideas, and photos

Colourful nepali flags on Cho La pass at 5.300 m
Photo: Mahatma4711, through a Creative Commons Attribution License

The 5,420 meter Cho La pass is a route over a high col between the main Everest Trek trail and Base Camp and the Gokyo Valley in Nepal. The Cho La allows trekkers to combine the two most popular trekking routes in the Khumbu, the Everest Base Camp Trek and the Gokyo Trek. While usually not technical in nature, the Cho La has been the scene of some very close calls due to falls in icy conditions, avalanches, and poor visibility.

The Cho La can be done from either direction. Count on 3 days to cross the pass.

To do the Cho La from Gokyo, head back down the trail to Second Lake. Look for a trail that veers off to the left over the moraine and onto the Ngozumpa Glacier. Cross the rocky Glacier, following cairns and footprints. Once across the glacier head over the moraine and into an ablation valley where you'll find Tragnag, the base camp for your crossing the Cho La, in a rocky meadow.

Plan on getting a 4am start to minimize your chances of rock fall in the couloir below the West side of the Cho La later that morning. If you wake up and there's been heavy snow or if visibility is poor, don't even think about crossing the Cho La. Instead make your way down to Pangboche on wonderful off the beaten path trails and catch the main EBC trail. It will add a day, but it's better than dying. If confessions look ok for the Cho La, then go for it.

Follow the Cho La trail from Tragnag up the gully and hillside to the North East. When you reach the top you'll drop down on a good trail, sometimes snow covered, and round the crest of several small hills. Within an hour, you'll reach the base of the couloir which will take you up the West side of the pass, a notch to the North of Cholatse. Make a careful survey of conditions in the Cho La couloir. This is a good place to turn around if conditions look sketchy at all. If the sun has hit the Cho La couloir, exercise extreme caution as the danger of rockfall will be increasing. If the Cho La couloir is icy, make sure you've put on your ice axe and crampons before proceeding.

The top of the Cho La opens up a new vista on the Khumbu. From here you can't see Everest, but to the left you've got the Changtse Peaks, straight ahead are Lobuche East and West Peaks and to your right the fearsome cliffs of Cholatse will appear. Make your way generally to the East down the gently sloping glacier, keep watch for a couple of yawning crevasses which you will easily pass in good visibility. The glacier steepens a bit before curling off to the right onto a series of switchbacks on rocky slopes to the SE. Move quickly here, as this area has seen a few avalanches. Make your way down the trail to Dzongla. Total time from Tragnag will be 6-8 hours depending on conditions.

From Dzongla, follow the trail down valley, on the S side Cho La lake, to a bridge which crosses the to meet the creek draining the Khumbu Glacier. If water is too high, or the bridge is out simply climb the boulder field on the West side of the drainage up to meet the main EBC trail.

Leave the EBC trail and cross the Khumbu Glacier drainage on a small wooden bridge between two rocks, after descending the steep headwall below the monuments. Follow a trail around the South side of the Cho La Lake and climb on a traverse up to Dzongla for the night. From Lobuche this will take 3-4 hours. From Gorak Shep, count on 5-6 hours. Plan an early morning 4am start from Dzongla. If there's been a lot of new snow or if visibility is poor, go back down and go around and up to Gokyo through Pangboche. Otherwise, make your way up the trail to just below where the cliff on the left intersects the Cho La glacier. You'll see some cairns here and this is where you cut onto the Cho La glacier. Steep at first, the Glacier quickly flattens to a low angle. simply avoid any big crevasses you see and make you way to the notch at the Cho La Pass itself.

Once at the top of the Cho La pass, make a careful appraisal of the couloir given the conditions your skills. If it's iced up put on your crampons and use that ice ax. If the sun has hit the Cho La couloir, exercise extreme caution for rockfall. As you descend, watch out for loose rocks and ice that may be just barely under the snow. At the bottom the the Cho La couloir, find cairns and a trail that winds over a few small hills and then a larger pass. Dropping off this pass down a gully to the Southwest you'll come to Tragnag. Stop here for the night, unless you've blazed over the pass. Gokyo is still another 3-4 hours walk at this point. Total time 4-6 hours from Dzonla over the Cho La to Tragnag.

From Tragnag, make your way over the moraine onto the Ngozumpa glacier. Cross the glacier following cairns and a well worn path in snow and rock. Cross over the moraine and drop down to second lake and the main Gokyo trail.

In warm, clear, stable conditions, it's possible to do the Cho La in tennis shoes and shorts. Most of the time, however, you'll be glad for study boots, gaiters, and snow pants. Just in case, it's nice to have an ice ax and crampons. Make sure you've got a down jacket to whip out if you need it. Carry plenty of water for the Cho La. Drinking 4-5 liters over the course of the day will speed your acclimatization. Bring at least two liters with you in your pack. If the Cho La couloir or Cho La glacier are icy, an ice axe and crampons are a necessity. If you have never travelled on glaciers, wear your sunglasses on the Cho La. Snowblindnessis no fun.


Reinhold Messner, who was the first to summit all 14 8,000 meter peaks without oxygen, looked at conditions on the Cho La actually bailed and walked around. If you turn around, you'll be in good company. If you're with a commercial group crossing the Cho La, make sure you tell your leader of any AMS symptoms. Resist the pressure to stay with the group. It's not that big of a deal to go around through Pangboche and meet your group a few days later. Approaching the Cho La pass, you may see a solitary line of footprints- those are generally not yeti prints, but snow leopards. Count yourself lucky to even see prints.


Optimal weather for temperatures and for mountain viewing are windows in October-November and from March-May. The season for the Cho La and the Khumbu area is largely centered around avoiding the monsoon and avoiding big storms in the winter.

From late May and lasting into September, the snow level rises to as high as 18,000 feet, but it rains a ton and views are obscured. Because the deepest snows of the year fall in the summer, it's wise to only cross the Cho La during a lull in the unstable weather. If you're planning to cross in December, you'll probably be ok as contrary to popular opinion, almost no precipitation falls and it's sunny nearly every day. It can however be very cold in December, and from January to early March, exercise extreme caution as snowfall has trapped parties in the past at that time.

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