cho oyu (8201m) - autumn 2006

Up and Down 1/10

2006-10-01T03:21:00.000-07:00

We summited at about 8.00am Nepalese time!

I found it much harder than Everest, where I used oxygen. Apart from the physical side of it, I have felt really cold.
My fingers gave me trouble and I was shivering from the cold, so we wasted no time at the top.
I did not phone Dad or take too many photos, as I did not want to take my gloves off.

I am more satisfied with this climb than Everest.

We are safely down to C3, and are heading down today to C2 at 7000m.
Tomorrow we should make it back to ABC.

Regards,
Blair

High Camp 30/9

2006-09-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

We reached C3 this afternoon and are resting up for a summit attempt this evening, with an early tomorrow morning summit.

We are feeling really good and strong and are looking forward to tomorrow.
It is still fine, but windy, and some groups using oxygen did summit today.

Thanks for following the climb.

Blair

Going Up 29/9

2006-09-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

We are now at C2 preparing to sleep the night. Tomorrow we plan to climb to C3, rest or sleep until midnight then push for the summit early on the 1/10/06.
The weather is excellent and the snow has not been too bad.
The teams that went up to set the route said they could have summited, so it is looking good.

My only doubt now is how I will go, as I am not using oxygen. I felt that using oxygen on Everest was a hollow victory, so this time it is au naturel.

Cheers,
Blair

Ready to go 27/9

2006-09-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

The snow has now been stopped for a couple of days and many groups are preparing for summit attempts. We leave tomorrow morning for C1, next day C2, next day C3, and then leave for summit about midnight.So if all goes to plan we should summit early on the morning of the 1st of October.
We won't know how serious the snow is until we get higher, so fingers crossed it is OK. I will phone Dad from higher on the hill so he can keep you updated on progress.
That's all for now,
Blair (via Roger)

Snowed In 24/9

2006-09-27T02:56:00.000-07:00

We are still at ABC experiencing the most prolonged snowstorm I have ever encountered!
It hasn't been that heavy, but it has hardly stopped for five days. Many groups are having to leave the mountain as they are on restricted time frames.
I am hoping to wait it out, but nobody knows how deep or bad the snow will be higher up the hill. At the moment it is lots of reading, Ipods and social visits.
Hopefully we will have better news next call in.
Thank you for your interest.
Blair (via Roger)
You can send short emails to my satellite phone on 881631547450@msg.iridium.com
no more than 120 characters

Back to ABC 18/9

2006-09-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

We are back down at ABC now, waiting for a route to be fixed on the upper part of the mountain.

The snow above C2 is very soft so we must wait for it to firm up enough to climb over. Then it will be a push straight to the summit.

C1 Sleepnight, C2 Sleep, C3 Short sleep then the summit.
Anyhow that is the plan.

All the best,

Blair (via Roger)

Waiting 15/9/6

2006-09-17T00:50:00.000-07:00

At present we are experiencing unusually warm weather and deep soft snow. This is delaying further progress at this stage. So far it has delayed our climb by two days.
We are hoping for the sun to melt away the soft snow so that the constant passing of people will form a track.

It was our first really cold evening yesterday, so as the temperature drops the snow should firm up and be easier to travel on.

Tomorrow we hope to leave ABC, climb to Camp 1 at 6400m and stay the night. The next day we will leave at 5.00am and climb in the shadows when the snow is still firm, up to camp 2 at 7000m, erect our tent and leave gear for later, then back down to camp 1 or hopefully ABC.

Thanks for following our climb.

Blair (via Roger)

Camp 1 and back 12/9/06

2006-09-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

I left advanced base camp (ABC) 5600m at 7.00am with my sherpa Lakapa and three other sherpas from Alpine Ascents International (AAI) from Seattle.
We all carried heavy loads to stock camp 1 at 6400m.
It is a horrible walk up on loose rock huraine scree for about 8km, then ramps up into a long difficult hill for 1 to 2.5 hours depending on loose rock. Two steps up, one back!
Usually it is rock all the way, but at the moment there is about 300m of slushy snow...fun!

We retied our tent more securely so that it will not get blown off the mountain, then helped the others dig platforms in the snow for their tents later.

Then back down to ABC by about 1am.

All as told to me by sat phone.

Roger

Fatherly update

2006-09-10T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hi,
this is the first update by Roger (Blair's Dad) I will be doing this until he comes down.
He rang me last night. The weather is bad at the moment, but he hopes to go from Advanced base camp to camp one and down straight away. Too early to sleep high yet.
More soon I hope.
Roger

the road to base camp

2006-08-31T08:43:00.000-07:00

right now as i write to all of you i am sitting on a prehistoric computer which is running windows 95.yes thats right...windows 95.
i am in the village of nyalam (3700m) in tibet. i have been here for 2 days and this may be my last inet contact before i actually go off to climb the mountain. its cold and the air is getting thinner. but i guess this is the way i like it.
anyway, the transaction from nepal to tibet was the smoothest i have ever had. we left ktm early on tuesday 29th august. where we were transported to the border by bus .took a quick lunch, then walked over the border via the friendship bridge in the pouring rain and into the tibetan frontier town of zangmu
there are so many expeditions on cho oyu this season. i thought this would be bad. but in actual fact it does not bother me. many of the groups are being lead or guided by friends of mine.and many of the groups have sherpas working for them that are close personal friends of mine too. so in that respect its great to catch up with all my friends and get to climb the same mountain with them.
we spent a night in zangmu, then taveled on to nyalam where i am now. today i took the opportunity to go off into the hills nearby for an acclimitisation hike. this is vital to help the body get used to the thinner air and altitude. without doing this the end result would be altitude sickness and possible end of my climb.
so basically you go off for a walk in the hills. gaining a little altitude and getting body used to working in the thin air.then next time you go a little higher it is just that little bit more easier and so on. until eventually you reach the top of the mountain. your ultimate goal.
this morning i awoke and took off for what i thought would be a short walk for a few hours up in to the nearby hills. problem was that half way up the hill i was climbing, the weather closed in. the rain came pouring down and the wind was howling and i was all alone up on this mini mountain.
the clouds engulfed the top of the hill and visibilty was no more than 20m. still i kept climbing up towards the top. each time i would reach what i thought was the top. only to then discover that the hill kept going further up. time and time again this kept happening. i would think i was on the summit. then see that i was actually far from it.
by the time i finally reach the top(4800m) i had been climbing for 3 hours. no sooner did i get there did i turn around and come back down. problem was that by now the weather was down right horrible. i had zero visibilty and no way to navigate my way down. i tried my best to find the right way. but it was inevietable that i would make a wrong turn. sure enought i lost the way and had to navigate my way off the hill an alternate way.
it took a long time to get down the rather steep, slippery moss covered hillside. but in the end persistance paid off and some 2 hours later i walked back into nyalam, just in time to join the rest of my group for lunch and nice cold sprite.
tomorrow we are off to our next destination. the village of tingri. several hundred metres higher in altitude we wil spend 2 days here. again for more acclimitisation. this will be our last place of civilisation before we actually head to base camp for cho oyu. so the chances are this will be the last time i will be able to updaye my blog personally. from now on my father will be taking over this duty for me.
so until then everyone. please stay in contact and i will talk to all very soon.
bye for now
blair

Arrival and departure from Kathmandu to Tibet...again

2006-08-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

25 august

hi everybody,
well right now as i write to you i am sitting an inet cafe in kathmandu, nepal. wow!! its feel like i only just left this place after my expedtion to everest earlier this year. it feels nice to be back. this is the first time i have been here at this time of year. and while there are still alot of people around. its not nearly as busy as it is during the april/may season of the year.
about 3 days ago i was welcomed with the news that my sherpa tashi would not be coming to cho oyu(8201m) with me. kind of odd considering i organised for him to come with me 2 months ago. and paid for him to come with me 1 month ago. his name was already on my climbing permit for the mtn. and all that was left to do was get his visa for tibet/china.
i guess what happened was another group he had climbed everest with in 2004 and with big big chequebooks and deep pockets rolled into town and asked him to join them. and so 2 days before i left for ktm i just happened to log on to messenger and he was on line. when i asked him to meet me at my hotel the day i arrived he told me that he was going with another group and that they had already paid him to go with them.
what could i say? i was flabbergasted that this was the way i had to find this news out? he had not even bothered to tell me and had i not messengered him i would never have known until i arrived in ktm 2 days later.
i love the sherpa people. they are incredibly strong. but are equally flaky aswell. this being another fine example of the above mentioned.
anyway. once the problem had made itself aware to me it was time to find a solution. so i got on the phone and tried to call my sherpa, pasang nuru, who i summitted everest with this year. i got a hold of his sister but pasang was in his viallge up in the everest area. his village has no phone lines or inet. and its a multiple day journey to get to ktm. so i gave up on this idea as a solution to my problem.
his sister said she would try get a message to him. but i was not confident that it would get to him and give him enough time to get to ktm before i was due to leave for cho oyu.
meanwhile tashi( the sherpa that had abandoned me) had asked another sherpa, lakpa to go to cho oyu with me. and so while i was packing and flying on a plane to ktm they had actually gone to my trekking office and submitted his passport to get his name on my climbing permit and a visa for tibet/ china. all unknown to me.
when i arrived to ktm and was settling into my hotel my phone rang. it was reception notifying me that my sherpa pasang was downstairs. now i had the heartbreaking job of telling hime that i already had a sherpa organised. and that he had just travelled 3 days and paid for a plane ticket for nothing.
apparently his sister had called to the nearest village with a phone. they had then sent a messenger by foot to his village and told him i was in need of his services. he then ran to the the nearest airport and took a flight back to ktm and straight to my hotel.
the least i could do was refund him the money for his plane ticket and expenses getting there. but i felt horrible that i had wasted so much of his time. and also that we would not be able to climb together as he is a great sherpa and good friend.
so now i am in ktm. i am meeting with lakpa tomorrow to go through the pack and try go through the mountains of mountain gear that i have here in storage in ktm. we will be going relatively lightweight so i have to be very selevtive about what i take and what i leave behind. i dont quite need to be so extreme in the amount of gear i take with me like i did on everest this year.but equally i dont want to be caught of guard either.
i reckon its going to take several hours to sort through it all. so for the next few days i am going to be a busy little beaver trying to get it all done before we take off for tibet.
anyway, its late here and i need to get some sleep. i will post another update before i leave ktm on tuesday morning.
take care all
blair

_________________________________________________

27/28 august

back again.in a few days i will be leaving the relative safety of ktm and departing for tibet again. as the time gets closer to leaving now i am starting to think more and more about the climb ahead. i wonder what the mtn and mother nature has in store for me. will she be nice to me like this year on everest? or will she attempt to punish and hurt as she did in 2003.
3 years ago i attempted cho oyu in april/may season. it ended in disaster. 2 climbing friends passed away on the mtn, and i froze 9 of my fingers ( see photo)whilst pushing for the summit. for 1 yr i wore bandages on my hands while the ends of my fingers slowly died and dropped off....literally.
the healthly tissue regenerates, and the dead tissue seperates itself and demarcates. eventually i had the bones of 2 fingers sticking out of the end of my fingers. i persisted with this for many many months before finally i accepted that the fingers would not heal without the help of surgery. and so almost 1 yr to the day i went in the a sydney hospital to have the ends of my fingers cut off.
cho oyu to me means a lot. it was my first 8000m mtn. i have a lot of history on this mtn some good, but most of it bad. and to say that i am not nervous about the climb would be a lie. anytime something or someone gets the better of you. and you have the chance to face them again, you are nervous. like an old adversary, with cho oyu..... i have unifinished business.
i just returned from a visit to a local lama with my sherpa. its very important to the sherpa people that they visit a lama to be blessed for good luck before they leave for the mtn. so if its important to them, its important to me.
logisitics and preparation are coming along well.yesterday i did the last of my food shopping, picked up a new polarising filter for my spare camera and took some gear of mine in for a few repairs. namely my downsuit which i tore coming down from the summit of everest. and my north face mountain 25 tent. which my sherpas managed to put several holes in during their haste to pack up and get off the everest after we had summitted.
other than that i am pretty much done. last night i went to dinner with some friends from russell brice's (new zealand) himalayan experience group. they are also in town to go climbing.
i really like russell. i have enormous respect for him as an expedition leader and as person. he is a very generous and caring man. he also happens to be the best exepedition leader on the mtn.
for over decade he has safely guided/lead hundreds of climbers to the summit of everest and some other of the highest mtns in the world. and during this time he has never lost or had a member die. this is an incredible track record when you take into account the nature of the territory and enviroment that we put ourselves into. which is less than hospitable and somewhat dangerous to say the least.
over recent years some members of the climbing fraternity have been unfairly critical of russell (due mainly in part i think to straight out jealousy).to me this is a huge injustice to him and his staff.. not only does russell's incredible sherpa team fix the route with ropes on everest every year. but his team is and has been involved in countless high altitude rescues helping save members of other expeditions who have nothing to do with him at all. dubbed by some climbers on the mtn as the "mother teressa of everest". due in part to his unselfish readiness to assist with any medical emergencies or rescues higher on the mtn. i have never seen russell turn away a climber that has walked into his base camp for advice, assistance or medical help. and for this russell....i salute you.
guides and good friends dean staples and mark whetu form new zealand ( oh well , you cant help bad luck) are working for russell this year and are leading/guiding the climb on shishapangma (8015m). while russell will be leading himex's ( himalayan experience's) expedition to cho oyu. the same mtn that i am trying to climb.
talking with russell yesterday we calculated that there will be anywhere up to 35-40 expedition groups on cho oyu this season. that means there potentionally will be around 300+ on the mtn. so in other words...we will not be alone.
we all shared a few beers ( well not me off course) in the local watering hole in ktm called tom + jerry's. off course i copped the brunt of their jokes for being the only aussies out of 5 kiwi's (new zealanders). but it was all light hearted and in jest.
i have to run now people. i have a expedition group meeting this morning and then i need to go pick up a few supplies ( gas canisters, rope and snow stakes) for the climb. i will try to get another post up before i go. but it will be hard seeing as i am off tomorrow morning. failing that my father will be updating this blog for me regularly as i will be in contact with him via my sat phone whilst i am on the mountain.
take care all.
see you soon
blair

cho oyu-autumn 2006

2006-07-04T01:31:00.000-07:00

cho oyu (8201m) the worlds 6th highest mountain as seen from chinese base camp in tibet.this photo was taken during the ill fated expedition during the spring 2003 season.