In reply to splat2million:
Hi Splat
From 20:25 here shows crossing Cho La from the Khumbu towards Gokyo in December:
That might help give you some idea of possible conditions and the route. The route we took goes up a rocky/ablated-snow spur to the very LHS of the glacier, and basically hugs the LHS of the glacier all the way to the pass (ie. the "true-right" all the way in valley speak). If you stop/start that video you can kind-of see where we went.
We got all our info (for the entire trip) out of Jamie McGuinness's book "Trekking in the Everest Region". But we're also happy navigating out of anywhere. Had crampons and axe and used them here and about 5 days during our trip.
In that video on the descent there is a quick shot of two people holding hands descending the steep ice to Gokyo. No spikes or crampons. That was a "local" "guide"? taking somebody down. He slipped soon after and his client managed to stop him slipping down the slope. Was all a bit hair-raising to watch. The local guides were all saying, ahhh you could use crampons but you don't need them, do you! But you would never approach an iced up slope like that over here or the alps without crampons.
So be careful with your porter and any advice given locally.
Interestingly, at the same time the locals were saying Kongma La was closed because of snow. But we didn't find that pass as potentially treacherous as Cho La. Neither were a problem at all for us with axe and crampons of course.
