Cho Oyu 2013 Expedition

Leader and updates: Martin Barnett
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7th October: We are now all back in Kathmandu and enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of this wonderful city. We all enjoyed a wonderful meal catered by Mohan and then we went to the famous Rum Doodle to finish the night off. Everybody is going there own separate ways now. Some to go whitewater rafting and riding on elephants and some back to loved ones. It has been a wonderful trip with everybody summiting but most importantly, everybody stayed healthy and safe.

3rd October: The team are having a rest day today and back down to Advanced Base Camp. Everyone is starting to feel stronger after some rest and plan to move down to Base Camp tomorrow. Hopefully they will arrive back in Kathmandu on Saturday.

1st October: Martin has just called with great news of 100% Summit success on Cho Oyu. He passed on the following message from Camp 2 that everyone has summited and returned back down to Camp 2 now. They summited at 6.30am and were feeling very tired but happy now after a long night. Martin wants to congratulate CG, Chris and Kevin for their fantastic efforts but also especially to Michael and Pete who summited without any supplemental oxygen.

Their success couldn’t be possible without our excellent Sherpa team: Lakpa Sherpa, Ongchhu Sherpa, Phurba Wanchhu Sherpa and Ang Kami Sherpa our cook so a massive thanks for their help and efforts. He expects the entire team to be back to Advanced Base Camp tomorrow now.

29th September: The whole team are now at Camp 2 (7100m). With a favorable forecast for the next few days their plan is to go to Camp 3 (7500m) on Monday and make their summit bid on Tuesday. Martin reports that everyone is in good spirits and feeling positive.

Fingers crossed – watch this space!!

25th September: After a good rest over the last 2 days the team are feeling well and in good spirits. They are preparing to head to the summit later this week depending on the weather, the current forecast is calm with little snow and ideal for a Summit attempt.  We’ll update you later this week on a likely day.

23rd September: Martin and the team have just come back down to Base Camp from Camp 2 (7100m) for a couple of days rest. Apart from the usual headaches everyone is feeling good and positive and the weather has been stable with only the occasional snow shower. Unfortunately there is a problem with sending emails from Base Camp which we are trying to sort out – but no promises!

19th September: We have just had a call from Martin. Sat phone coverage and email have been very intermittent over the last 2 days. The team are planning on heading up to Camp 1 tomorrow and then up to Camp 2 the day after before returning to Camp 1. They expect to be out of contact during that time so not to worry. Everyone is feeling healthy and strong and in great spirits.

16th September, update from Mick: Hello all, Mick here from the Cho Oyu Team. We’re all feeling fit after our climb to Camp 1 (6200m) yesterday. Now enjoying a rest day back at ABC which is fortunate for me as it is my 35’th birthday, boo hoo! Still holding out for a birthday cake from our camp chef Ancammie.

All are looking forward to tomorrows climb back up to Camp 1 for a sleep to aid in our acclimatisation.

Thanks for all of those who are following our progress through the AP site.
Mick and the team

14th September: We had a wonderful day yesterday as we shared in a Sherpa cultural experience called a Puja. We gathered our climbing gear together to be blessed by the Lama to help us be safe while we are on the mountain. As you can see by the picture, we also offered a series of food and drinks for the gods. The color of the prayer flags and smiling faces truly added to it being a great time.

Today we went for an acclimatization walk up to Lake camp (5800 meters). It was quite interesting as we got to feel what it was like to actually be on the mountain.

Overall, the weather has been snowing on and off for the past few days which is quite typical for this time of the year. We are all well and healthy and enjoying that we can spread our gear out as we have our own 3 person tent to our selves at advanced base camp.

Till next time. Martin

12th September, update from Pete: We arrived at Advanced Base Camp yesterday at approx 5,500m and are now enjoying a well earned day of rest. We walked up behind our 26 yaks, some of which were slightly perturbed to be carrying our loads!

The weather was very sunny yesterday and we enjoyed stunning views of the mountain and various glaciers. That all changed last night as we had about 5cm of snow overnight.

Tomorrow we have the Puja, to look forward to where we get our equipment blessed by the local Lama and prepare for the upcoming climb.

Spirits are still high and we are looking forward to getting higher up the mountain! Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope all’s well back in the UK, Ireland, US or wherever this is being read from! Some guys on the team have been e-mailing, and have not received responses (not me!) if you are expecting an email from a loved one it may be worth checking your junk mail for emails from basecamp@adventurepeaks.com. Much love Pete

8th September: Update from team member Chris. Thank you to those of you who are following our progress in the UK. We have a fantastic group here in Tibet which includes our guide, Martin, Mick, Phoebe, Pete, Kev and me, Chris. Each of us will take it in turn to write to you all over the next 5 weeks and keep you up to speed with our little adventure.

Right now, we are acclimatising at Chinese Base Camp (4,700 metres) and looking out on to the specular outline of Cho Oyu itself – she looks big! So far,the weather has been great (no post monsoon downfalls – yet), the food is worth writing home about and the group is feeling strong.

The next time you hear from us will be in 4-5 days time when we reach Advanced Base Camp (5,700 metres). Until then, thank you for your continued support and we all look forward to seeing you all very soon.

6th September: Had a great breakfast of omelet and pancakes before we took a beautiful acclimatization walk up to 4300m in the sunshine. We rested this afternoon and will be heading out to Tingri in the morning. This photo shows us observing the objective for the next 4 weeks. The turquoise goddess, Cho Oyu.

After a 3 hour drive to Tingri (4300m) via a Monastery viewing, we had lunch and received our first view of Cho Oyu. The weather is wonderful and we are going to head up to basecamp in the morning.

4th September: We are now all in Nylam and enjoying life at 3700 meters. We are getting along well with our Sherpas and starting to learn new words. We have been waking up to rain each morning but it clears up into a nice day so we can enjoy the views. We are looking forward to doing an acclimatisation hike tomorrow and testing out our lungs.

2nd September: The whole team is together now, we have checked  all gear and we are ready and excited to leave at 5am in the morning.

1st September: I just though I would let you know that I met up with Michael, Chris and Phoebe today and we made it safely with all of our luggage to the Thamel Eco Resort in Kathmandu. We had a nice dinner in the Fire & Ice restaurant and planning on meeting up with the rest of the group tomorrow.

31st of August: The team depart the UK andl arrive in Kathmandu.  Here they will be able to shop for any last minute items they need for the trip, take in hustle and bustle of Thamel  and visit the many temples.

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