Cho - Oyu

Cho Oyu at 8201 M is the sixth highest peak in the world. It lies completely inside Tibet Autonomous region of China. Cho Oyu means ‘Turquoise goddess’ in Tibetan language. I had the opportunity to lead and summit during this expedition.

For this expedition, we flew from Kathmandu to Lhasa. After few days of acclimatising, we drove for four days to reach the Road head camp for the mountain, crossing the historical towns of Gyantse and Shigatse enroute. It takes two days to reach the Base Camp and thankfully the yaks go all the way to the base camp.
That makes the trek more enjoyable as the bulk of the loads are carried by yaks. Base camp is located close to Nangpa La, the 18,753 ft high pass on China – Nepal border. This pass is glaciated and still serves as main trading route between Tibetans and Sherpas of Khumbu region of Nepal.
A total of three camps are established before making the summit attempt. Though Cho Oyu is considered an easy climb amongst the 8000ers but the climb at those heights poses some peculiar challenges and the difficulties due to terrain and snow/ice conditions are just incidental and are of more significance in case of solo climbs. When climbing with a bigger team and Sherpa support, the main challenge to a climber are to withstand the challenges of cold conditions, adjusting to effects of high altitude and endurance.
The climb to Camp I was a mix of rocks and ice and involved steep climb onto the ridge which flattens gradually till the summit. The narrowest part of the ridge is where Camp I is located.
The route between Camp I and II involves negotiating an ice wall where fix rope is a must. Although, in all major expeditions to 8000ers, generally the bulk of the route is fixed with rope as the climbers are required to negotiate the slope multiple times due to load ferrying, establishment of camps, acclimatisation climbs and of course the final climb.
The Camp II is located on a snowy slope littered with both open and closed crevasses. During our expedition, one of our climbers inadvertently fell into one such space outside his tent, when he went out to attend to nature’s call.
Luckily, the team reacted fast and pulled him out and also the crevasse was not very wide thus blocked his fall at short depth only. The route ahead of Camp II is quite steep but there are no major technical difficulties during this stretch. Many climbers start feeling the effect of high altitude during this section.
Route ahead of Camp III is challenging as it goes over slippery rocks during steep sections and is quite a long stretch over soft snow at times and mostly on ice. The climb to the summit is long, gradual, sometime on soft fresh snow. It drags on for hours before one can see the fluttering prayer flags.
The summit of Cho Oyu is a bit unlike an usual image of a conical peak. It is a bit long slope which finally tapers to the other side. It is only when one starts noticing a gradual descent that one realises that one has crossed the peak.
More so when its cloudy and one cannot see the peaks around. Everest is very prominently visible and looks very close from the summit of Cho Oyu. We were fortunate to have a clear day and the view of Everest and the peak around was astounding.
Cho Oyu is often used as a kind of test climb before taking on the bigger challenges like Annapurna-I , Lhotse and Everest. A cherished climb and a memorable expedition.