Off the Wall trekking ~Welcome to our World of Expeditions~A different perspective~: 2014 Cho Oyu, the Turquoise Mountain, the first 60 years, Nepal

Extracts from an article first published in Nepal Parbat (Nepal Mountaineering Association) 2014 author Ian Wall.

Cho Oyu, the Turquoise Mountain, the first 60 years

Cho Oyu is a Nepal - China border-mountain situated in the Mahalangur Himal in north-eastern Nepal. It stands at the head of the Gokyo Valley 20 km west of Everest. With an elevation of 8,201m it is the sixth highest mountain in the world and the fifth highest mountain in Nepal. The name Cho Oyu means Turquoise Goddess in Tibetan, to the west of Cho Oyu is the Nangpa La a 5,716m glaciated pass linking Nepal and China and an ancient trade route that is still used by Tibetans travelling back and forth.

The Great Trigonometric Survey of India, part of the British Survey of India which began in 1803, made distance measurements of many high Himalayan peaks. In the 1850s this included those in the Mount Everest region. Cho Oyu, not originally assigned an identification number, was later named T45 and then MI since, at that time, it appeared to be a peak of lesser importance.

Cho Oyu’s location eventually gave it prominence and attracted the attention of the early explorers visiting the northern side of Everest, however, at that time they had their eyes set on higher objectives. It was only during the Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition in 1921 when the leader, Lieutenant-Colonel Howard-Bury (1881-1963) took photographs of Cho Oyu from the Nangpa La area that the news of this ‘big mountain’ Cho Oyu finally inspired greater interest. During the 1921 expedition Howard-Bury found many footprints in the snow at high altitude, he later pronounced that the tracks "were probably caused by a large 'loping' grey wolf", however his sherpas were quick to respond saying that they were the tracks of a "metch kangmi" ("filthy snowman"). It was then that Henry Newman of The Statesman in Calcutta (now Kolkata) obtained descriptions from the expedition's porters on their return to Darjeeling and subsequently wrote an article for the publication. [i] Bill Tilman writes in his book, Mount Everest 1938, that Newman mistranslated "metch kangmi" as "abominable snowman"; hence the phrase "Abominable Snowman" came into existence in 1921 [ii] and the Yeti has since become a popular subject of discussions, publications, research and expeditions.

Cho Oyu eventually played its own role in the Everest story as in 1952, as part of the preparation for the forth coming Everest Expedition (1953), the British organized an attempt to summit Cho Oyu funded by the ‘Mount Everest Committee’. This body was established by the Alpine Club of Great Britain and the Royal Geographical Society in 1921 as the funding and coordinating body tasked with organizing the 1921 Everest Reconnaissance Expedition and all other British expeditions up to 1947 when the Committee was renamed the ‘Joint Himalayan Committee’. This committee then went on to organize and finance the successful first ascent of Everest in 1953.

The 1952 British Cho Oyu Expedition was lead by Eric Shipton and included a young New Zealand climber called Ed Hillary and another young British climber, Tom Bourdillon. Shipton was involved in most of the Everest expeditions of the 1930s, including the Ruttledge 1933 Everest Expedition. In 1935 Shipton lead his first Everest expedition and took as part of his team a 19 year old young man from Darjeeling to act as a porter, Tenzing Norgay. In 1951 Shipton was instrumental in exploring the Khumbu’s Western Cwm and the Ice Fall approach to the south side of Everest.[iii] He died in March 1977 after an illness.

The purpose of the expedition, besides reaching the summit of Cho Oyu, was "to test the ability of several mountaineers to climb to great heights;" to find a group of climbers able to attempt Mount Everest in 1953; to test oxygen gear, clothing, and equipment; and to study the physiology of high-altitude climbing. [iv]

Unfortunately, the Chinese closed the Tibetan side of Cho Oyu and the best feasible route to the summit. The climbers, including Edmund Hillary and George Lowe, attempted the Southwest Ridge but were stopped due to technical difficulties and avalanche danger above 6,650m (21,820 ft) and a report that Chinese troops were a short distance away across the border.

Although the 1952 British Cho Oyu Expedition was unsuccessful it did manage to summit 11 ‘new’ peaks and explore the valleys and passes to the west of the Nangpa La before returning home. Hillary made the first crossing of the Tesi Lapcha.

On October 19^th 1954, the mountain was climbed for the first time via the north-west ridge, by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama on an Austrian expedition. The expedition crept illegally across the Nangpa La and into Tibet and at 3:00 p.m. on October 19^th, Austrian climbers Joseph Jöchler and Herbert Tichy and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama (Indian citizen) stepped onto the summit of Cho Oyo after climbing almost 4,000 feet in ten hours from Camp IV. Their route is now regarded as the standard route by which teams summit the mountain.[v]

In 1958 an Indian Expedition, led by Keki Bunshah, made the second ascent of Cho Oyu, this was the first major achievement in Indian mountaineering history. The summiteers were S. Gyatso and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama, who climbed to the summit for his second time. Sadly Narendra Dhar Jayal from India later died as a result of altitude illness, thus becoming the first climber to perish on Cho Oyu. v

In 1959 a 12 strong all-woman's expedition led by the French female climber Claude Kogan hoped to place the first woman on the summit of an 8,000-meter peak. [vi] Kogan, Belgian climber Claudine van der Stratten, and Sherpa Ang Norbu died in an avalanche that swept over their high camp. Sherpa Chewang also died in an avalanche while attempting to reach the climbers.

The 1964 a German Expedition made the controversial third ascent of Cho Oyu . Stammberger, a skier on his first Himalayan expedition was poised for a summit bid at the high Camp with two companions, Georg Huber and Alois Thurmayr, when they both developed pulmonary edema. The next day Stammberger soloed without oxygen to the summit. By the time he descended to the camp, one climber had died. From 24,000 feet, he then skied down the mountain to get help but rescuers didn't reach the camp for nine days. [vii]

By the late 1970s climbing technology, equipment, and the way Himalayan mountaineers approached expeditions and big routes had greatly moved away from the large siege style expeditions of previous decades. In 1978, Austrians Alois Furtner and Edi Koblmuller, who had nothing more than a trekking permit, made an audacious and difficult ascent placing some fixed ropes to the right side of the south face. This ascent has always been regarded as an illegal summit bid and has as thus been disputed. [viii]

On 5 May 1983, Messner, Kammerlander and Michael Dacher reached the summit via a partially new route on the south side. The trio climbed alpine style and without Sherpas in four days up the southwest flank, this was the fourth overall ascent.[ix] This ascent was followed by an American-Czechoslovak women’s’ expedition (1984) which successfully summated Cho Oyu. Dina Štěrbová and an American with Czech ancestry Věra Komárková reached the summit on 13^th May via the West Face and Messner’s route. [x] The following year the Polish Winter Expedition lead by Andrzej Zawada, placed Maciej Berbeka and Macieji Pawlikowski on the summit, via a hard technical new route which ascended the South Ridge. The ascent of this face was one of the great heroic feats of modern Polish mountaineering. This route was repeated three days later by Andrzej Heinrich and Jerzy Kukuczka on the very last day of the ‘official’ winter season. [xi]

In December 1985 a Slovenian team, D. Becík and J. Stejskal, ascended Cho Oyu in winter alpine style via the Messner route. [xii] Fernando Garrido (Spain) became the first man to solo an 8000m peak in winter in 1988.[xiii] This was followed in the same year by the first ascent of the North Face was made by the Sloven climbers, Iztok Tomazin (solo) and then next day Viktor Groselj, Koze Rozman, Rado Nadvesnik, Marko Prezelj, Blaz jereb and Roman Robas also summatted. [xiv]

The West Face was first climbed in 1990 by that unstoppable team of Kurtyka, Troillet and Loretan, in just two days, including a descent of the north-west ridge.[xv] In 1991 Russian Expedition successfully placed five climbers on the summit on the 20^th October, Sergei Bogomolov, Valeri Perchin, Ivan Plotnikov, Evgeni Vinogradski and Alexsander Yakovenko ascended the South Face route. [xvi]

In the spring season of 1993 a Belgium expedition lead by Bernard Mounsy completed the 100^th ascent of the mountain along with Goran Kropp who was on a separate expedition from the north side, Linda Le Bon and Danu Sherpa also summated from the north. Other expeditions that year included a large expedition of eight Germans and seven Austrians led by Peter Geyer. During the autumn season an expedition of eight climbers from Navarra, Spain attempted Cho Oyu from the Nangpa La along with several other expedition members from Japan, Korea, Italy and Nepal. In the winter of 1993 an expedition of six Spaniards, a Swiss woman and an Argentinean climbed Cho Oyu. The Argentinean, Sanchez was the first climber from his country to summit Cho Oyu and the first Latin American to climb an 8000m peak and Mile Chapuisat was the first woman to climb an 8000m peak in winter, Swiss Marianne Chapuisat also summitted in 1993. [xvii]

1994 was a busy year on Cho Oyu. Carlos Carsolio, a Mexican mountaineer reached the summit setting a world speed record for the ascent from base camp to the summit in 15 hours and 6 minutes.[xviii] The first solo ascent of the South West Face was completed by Yasushi Yamanoi, and via a new route.[xix] An International (commercial) Expedition led by Mal Duff (UK) also successfully reached the summit via the West Ridge after entering Tibet via the Nangpa La.[xx] Taeko Nagao and Yuka Endo from Japan summated after four days of climbing as part of the Japanese Women’s Expedition via an alpine style ascent of the 1990 route.[xxi]

The next few years were quiet but then on the 6^th May 1997 Vlado Štrba stood on the summit as a member of an international expedition led by J. Novák. He was the fifth Slovak to summit Cho Oyu. I. Urbanovič was also a member of this expedition. [xxii]

By the 2000s there had been another change of mind set amongst the top class mountaineers, Yuichiro Miura and son Son Gota reached the summit[xxiii] Mark Inglis from New Zealand successfully climbed Cho Oyu with three others, becoming only the second double amputee to summit an 8000m mountain. [xxiv]

British climber Alan Hinkes caused a controversy over his climb. Neither Liz Hawley nor AdventureStats have Alan logged for a Cho Oyu summit stating he had no photographic proof of his ascent which was allegedly completed in very poor visibility.[xxv] This fate has befallen other climbers who have no actual proof in Liz Hawley’s eyes. Alan maintains that he is convinced that he did summit and unless there is proof to the contrary then that is his final word. In the autumn of 2005 Pemba Dolma Sherpa lead a successful Climb High (commercial) expedition to the North-West Ridge. [xxvi] Later that year an Anglo-Irish Xtreme Expedition undertook a number of ambitious scientific projects at high altitude, including taking blood samples. The seven-man team completed work on the effects of supplemental oxygen on well-acclimatised mountaineers during sleep, exercise, and treatment inside a portable hyperbaric chamber (Gamow Bag).[xxvii]

In 2006 Pavle Kozjek, from Ljubljana, Slovenia soloed a new route to the west of the Yasushi Yamanoi line. Teammates, Uros Samec, Aljaz Tratnik, Marjan Kovac and Emil Tratnik, started up the same route a few minutes after him. Uros and Aljaz made their ascent alpine style, spending the night on the descent in their own tent at Camp III. [xxviii] In 2007 the second Indian Expedition led by Abhilekh Singh Virdi summatted and in 2009 the Kazakh mountaineer, Denis Urubko, completed a superb alpine-style ascent via a new route on the South East Face. For this achievement Urubko received his third Asian Piolets d'Or Award, for an ascent that would also gain him an award at the main 2010 Piolets d'Or in Chamonix, France. [xxix]

Cho Oyu is considered to be the easiest of the 8000m summits, that’s easiest NOT easy! As such many commercial expeditions are being run seasonally to meet the needs of the many people who not only want to reach 8000m but who are trying to get the appropriate experiences to enable them to join a commercial Everest expedition. The route they follow is in the main that established on the first ascent up the North West Ridge. To indicate the volume just click on ‘Google search – climb Cho Oyu’, there are 1,32,000 listings admittedly not all are directly advertising expeditions but the majority are linked to one agency or another! By 2010 Cho Oyu over 1600 ascents but sadly 43 fatalities had been recorded.

The above is by no means a complete history of all the expeditions that have attempted or succeeded on Cho Oyu over the first 60 years. The full history of all the ascents from the first ascent to the latest ascent can be found in the Himalayan Database - ‘The expedition archives of Elizabeth Hawley’.

Additional material has been inserted into this blog., namely and with acknowledgements to The Teara Encyclopedia of NZ - the Edmund Hillary Story image 3, image 4 attributed to various sources on the internet, Steve Holmes for the use of his photographs 5

Ian Wall September 2014