Climb Cho Oyu, Cho-Oyu, accessible 8000 metre mountain, 8000 meter peak. Working with the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA), the Tibetan Mountaineering Association (TMA, CTMA), the Xinjiang Mountaineering Association (XMA, CXMA), the Kashgar Mountaineering Association (KMA, CKMA), and the Nepal Ministry of Tourism, Mountaineering Section (MINTOUR). to bring you the best possible expedition.

World's sixth highest, and one of the most accessible 8000 metre peaks. Located in Tibet, near Everest.

Climbing Cho Oyu would qualify you for our "Basic Climb" of Everest. Please see our Everest link for further information. Thank you.

Full Service Cost: $7450, Ł4250, €6450; Basic Climb Cost: $5250, Ł2950, €4550.

Our last expedition successfully and safely climbed this peak, placing 6 members and 2 sherpas on the summit.

Our current Cho Oyu expedition is attempting the summit. 11 members and 4 Sherpas from 8 countries are climbing the peak. We are also trying to put the first Nepalese woman on the summit in this, the 50th anniversary year of the peak' s first ascent. Please read the news: News Button.

Cho Oyu, seen from 5250 metres (photo taken from just above Chinese base). The route climbs gently through the right hand face, and the true summit is on the left center of the photo, across the summit plateau. Photographer: D.L. Mazur

Leader: Ryan Waters, fluent English and Spanish speaker, Everest summiter and professional climbing instructor;

Organizer: Jon Christian Otto, fluent Chinese speaker, Tibet and China Expert, with 10 years Himalayan climbing experience.

* Our “full-service” expedition (Cost: $7450, Ł4250, €6450) includes:

Basecamp kitchen, cooks, meals, dining, and sleeping tents: $1500, Ł850, €1250.

High altitude leaders, sherpas, tents, equipment, walkie-talkies, food, stoves, fuel, etcetera: $1500, Ł850, €1250.

Leadership: During this full-service expedition, you will benefit from the leadership provided by Ryan Waters, fluent English and Spanish speaker, Everest summiter and professional "Outward-Bound" climbing instructor. He is a relaxed, considerate and thoughtful person, a climbing instructor for the world famous "Outward-Bound" school, and a highly-skilled professional who specializes in getting people to the summit and back down in 100 percent safety. For more about Ryan Waters, please "click" on the Leadership link above.

Organization: Your expedition is organized by Jon Christian Otto, fluent Chinese speaker, Tibet and China expert with ten years experience in Chinese Himalayan climbing. Jon is an excellent communicator, an international diplomat, extremely well organized, with superb attention to each and every detail. For more about Jon, please "click" on the Leadership link above.

Sherpas and Equipment Transport: Our expedition includes transport of all of your equipment from Kathmandu to advanced basecamp, and returned to Kathmandu. While climbing on the mountain, we DO NOT ask our full-service members to carry heavy group equipment (although it is an option if you really want to), such as tents, rope, fuel, food, etcetera. We employ climbing sherpas, and high-altitude porters, to carry group equipment and supplies. For a minimal expense, we can also provide personal sherpas and climbing-guides to individual members who wish to have their own private sherpa or personal climbing-guide. We now encourage members to hire a 1/4 of a sherpa, to help with high altitude equipment transport, both up and down the mountain. Please visit our Sherpa link to learn more.

Oxygen: You should consider whether or not you wish to use supplemental oxygen. About half of our Cho Oyu team members do. Its not like Everest where Oxygen is absolutely necessary, but some Cho-Oyu climbers like it because it gives them a little extra edge of "insurance" that they will be feeling as well as possible when resting in the high camp and on summit day. In addition, supplemental oxygen usage has been shown to markedly reduce the incidence of frostbite. Our sherpas will help you carry the oxygen, and two four-litre bottles should be more than enough (1 might suffice), and you also need the mask, hoses, and regulator. Or, you can have the full set of five bottles plus mask-regulator-hoses. We have a 70% buy back policy bottles on unused oxygen, and masks, hoses, and regulators in good condition. All of the equipment is guaranteed to work well together, and it is easy to use, with simple threaded and snap-on fittings which require no tools. Please visit our Oxygen link to learn more.

Training: Upon arrival in Kathmandu and the base camp, ALL full-service and basic-climb members are requested to participate in one to two days of training in the areas of climbing techniques, glacier travel, rope fixing, ascending, descending, safety techniques, rappels (abseils), belaying, medical equipment and procedures, communications equipment, camping techniques and high-altitude cooking. For the expert and beginner alike, it is important to review these techniques in order to enhance skills, ensure safety-awareness, and work together as a team.

Safety: BOTH full-service and basic expeditions are allowed access to our extensive medical supplies, first-aid kits, medical oxygen, and a gamow bag in case of emergency. Thank you for being a well-prepared and safe team member!

Group Equipment: We provide a plethora of well-used, top-quality, and time-tested equipment, group gear, and supplies, including: rope, ice, rock, and snow anchor protection; base camp and altitude tents; cookers, fuel, high-altitude food, walkie-talkie radios, bamboo marker wands, etcetera. We now provide each member with their own individual tent in base camp, so you do not have to share. Please see the above EQUIPMENT link, to study what we bring for your use and safety.

Cooks and Food: On the road we eat in the local restaurants as available. In base camp and advanced base camp our skillful and hard working cooks prepare three hot meals each day with a very healthy diet of fresh vegetables, cheeses, eggs, and fresh as well as tinned fruits, meats and fish (all meats and fish are prepared separately out of respect for the vegetarians in our midst). They supply you with unlimited hot-drinks, a key to successful acclimatization. We have large weather-proof kitchens and dining tents, with comfortable chairs and tables. On the mountain, above advanced base camp, we provide you with abundant and nutritious locally available quick-cooking food, so that you may prepare at least three meals and lots of hot drinks each day, in our specially designed high-altitude stoves using our butane-propane expedition mix fuel.

Personal Equipment: Plastic double climbing boots are required, but for Cho Oyu you will most likely prefer "One-Sport" boots which are double boots made of composite layers laminated together and have a built-in gaiter. Good quality leather walking boots are necessary for the trek ("broken-in" please). You will need to bring your own personal equipment, including boots as mentioned above, as well as rucksack, iceaxe, crampons, harness, helmet, down/duvet jacket and trousers or a down/duvet suit, wind/waterproof clothing, sleeping bag/mat, etcetera. We ask you to bring your own daily snack-energy food and 4 of your favorite high-altitude freeze-dried dinners for yourself. Please see the above EQUIPMENT link, to study what is needed.

Team Member Experience: Our leaders and our team-climbing-sherpas are there to ensure (for our full-service members) you make it up to the summit and back down safely. However, this is not a guided expedition (although you could hire your own personal guide, sherpas, etcetera), and team members are expected to be able to care for themselves in a winter-camping and climbing environment. Although Cho Oyu is considered to be the world's most accessible 8000 metre peak, there are hazards present, and members must have experience in roped rock and ice climbing techniques (to protect from falling down the mountain or into crevasses), and have winter-condition climbing experience in the greater ranges of the world. It is also required that all members will have an awareness of altitude sickness, frostbite, and the recognition of their symptoms, prevention, and treatment. Once traveling above camp 1, all members must be roped to another team member at all times. Neither solo climbing, nor descending, are allowed above camp 1.

Fitness and Health: To participate in this expedition you must be a very fit and active winter-walker-climber in good health. Prior to joining our group, please see your doctor and obtain the necessary permission and advice, as well as medications for travel in extremes of altitude, and also for exotic locales. Note: You can purchase all necessary medicines inexpensively with no doctor's prescription in Kathmandu. Please make sure you have physically trained yourself very thoroughly before joining this climb of one of the sixth highest peak in the world. We look forward to climbing together with you!

The route follows the gentle left hand skyline, barely visible in this photo. (Photo: J. Otto). Route map, showing the three camps, and the normal route. The fixed rope pitches are just below Camp 2. (Web Collection). Tim climbing in the mixed section (less than six metres high and accomplished on fixed lines at 6700 metres), with Phil and John below (DL Mazur).

Detailed Description

The trip begins in the ancient and colorful city of Kathmandu (you could also start in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Chengdu and drive in from exotic Lhasa). You stay in a comfortable, simple, clean hotel, and sample some of the tasty Nepalese, Tibetan and Western-Style cuisine. During your free days in Kathmandu, you shall finalize arrangements, including your group visa, and take some time out for trinket hunting, with potential visits to explore the 17^th century splendors of the Monkey Temple, the Durbar Square and old Kings Palace, as well as the ancient city of Patan.

Early in the morning you set out in a bus for the last Nepal town of Kodari at 1,770 meters. If you are concerned about the altitude and have purchased Diamox (acetylzolamide), which is inexpensively available with no doctor's prescription in Kathmandu, this might be the time to begin taking it. You clear Nepalese customs and immigration, then hire local porters and vehicles to carry your bags across the Bota Kosi River on the Friendship Bridge, to Zhangmu, the gateway town in Tibet. Upon entering Tibet, the clocks immediately go forward by 2 Ľ hours. Your liaison officer will meet you in Zhangmu. After clearing Tibetan customs and immigration, a Chinese bus takes you up the windy road through the rolling hills to Nyalam town at 3,750 meters, and a basic "hotel". The smaller towns in Tibet are generally simple and rustic places, and this one is no exception. The topography here is quite interesting in that you are perched in the transitional zone where the Tibetan plateau rams into the Himalaya, then drops into the forested valleys and jungles of Nepal, and finally out into the Gangetic plain of the Terai and India. You stay over one extra day and night in Nyalam, to help adjust to the altitude. During your rest day in Nyalam, you might wish to hang out in the Tashi Amdo teashop, and enjoy a variety of pleasant treks on the hillsides, as well as explore some interesting small Buddhist gompas (temples).

On the road to Tingri. Basecamp at 5600 metres, and Walter walking through the moraine to camp 1. (DL Mazur).

In the morning you continue your bus-ascent into the Tibetan plateau, to the town of Tingri at 4,342 meters. There are superb views of Shishapangma, Cho-Oyu, and Everest as you drive into Tingri. The town itself is a very basic one-street hamlet surrounded by the tents of nomadic Tibetans. About ˝ of all ethnic Tibetans living in Tibet are nomadic or semi-nomadic. Your extremely rustic little hotel has an adequate restaurant, and it will be interesting to see if the high altitude has quelled your appetite for tasty fresh food. There are the ruins of an old fortress on a rise above town, and from here you can see the finest views of Everest, Lhotse, Cho-Oyu, and Shishapangma.

The following morning, after what for many is a relatively sleep-free night, you drive the 44 kilometers to Cho Oyu base camp at around 4,970 meters. The drive follows a dirt road along the Ra Chu Valley and has spectacular views of the Himalayan. Chinese base camp is located just below the Jabula glacier, also known as the Kyetrag or Gyabrag glacier (romanisations of Tibetan have not been finalized).

You then spend two days moving up to the "advanced basecamp" at 5,600 metres, which is actually the true base camp for our climb. From here, you will complete your climb of Cho Oyu

Cho Oyu is basically a 10 to 50 degree slope, with a few tiny pitches of near vertical rock, snow, and ice. The highest technical section is an "ice/snow-step" just six metres high. These sections are 100 percent climbed on fixed lines, with the highest degree of safety. Camp 1 is located in a saddle at 6,400 meters, at the base of the north-west ridge. The trail to Camp 1 is loose scree and stone covered ice with some snow. It is often referred to as the: "horrible hill" and is nearly always accomplished in mere hiking boots.

Camp 1 in a saddle on the ridge at 6400 metres. A sherpa in camp 2, and camp 3 at 7450 metres. The peaks in the distance include the nearly 8000 metre Gyachung Kang. (DL Mazur).

The Northwest ridge opens onto the northwest face, and there is one easy 6 metre high technical fixed ice/snow step, then Camp 2 is placed just above a sloped section at 7,000 meters. Camp 3 is located on the northwest ridge-face at 7,450 meters. You shall attempt the summit from Camp 3.

On summit day, you climb through a few small-easy rock steps (4 metres high) and mixed snow to the wide summit plateau and make the long plateau traverse to the little bump that marks the summit, at 8,201 meters. You know you are on the true summit when you see the inspiring views of Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, Makalu, and the entire Khumbu valley.

Dan and one of our sturdy sherpas on the summit, Mt Everest and Makalu in the background (T. Boelter and DL Mazur).

The proposed itinerary allows enough time for proper acclimatization, rest days, and several returns to base camp, where the kitchen and base camp staff can look after all of your needs, and quell your appetite. The weather at this time of year is normally quite good and stable. However, we all know the global weather is changing, and in case of storms, you will note the proposed itinerary includes extra days as well. In previous expeditions, half of those who reached the summit needed every single "extra" day.

After packing up all of your equipment, supplies, and rubbish, you will make a short return trek and drive to Tingri, have a feast at the restaurant and stay in the hotel. The following morning, you are up early, and drive all the way down to Zhangmu, hire porters to carry everything over the Friendship Bridge, then catch a bus into Kathmandu, where you can enjoy a hot shower and a grand Nepalese western-style feast. In Kathmandu, you can have a day to relax, celebrate, tour the valley, write postcards, and do a bit more shopping, before heading home. We hope you had a safe, enjoyable, and successful adventure. Thanks for joining in!

1.	Leader: Ryan Waters, fluent English and Spanish speaker, Everest summiter and professional "Outward-Bound" climbing instructor;
2.	Organizer: Jon Christian Otto, fluent Chinese speaker, Tibet and China Expert, with 10 years Himalayan climbing experience;
3.	Climbing Sherpas for the group;
4.	Transport to base camp for you and equipment to/from Kathmandu, including accommodation and meals on the road;
5.	Yak transport of all equipment from the road to and from advanced basecamp;
6.	Three hot meals per day in base camp. Comfortable tables and chairs and dining tent;
7.	Skillful base camp cooks;
8.	All mountain, and base camp food;
9.	All permit fees and liaison officers;
10.	Use of group gear and supplies: rope, ice, rock, and snow anchor protection; base camp and altitude tents; cookers, fuel, high-altitude food, walkie-talkie radios, etc;
11.	Emergency equipment and supplies: medical oxygen, gamow bag, base camp medical kit, high-altitude medical kits, etcetera;
12.	In addition to our top-quality high-altitude tents, we now provide an individual tent (1 tent per person) in base camp.

1.	Coordinator: Ryan Waters, fluent English and Spanish speaker, Everest summiter and professional "Outward-Bound" climbing instructor;
2.	Organizer: Jon Christian Otto, fluent Chinese speaker, Tibet and China Expert, with 10 years Himalayan climbing experience;
3.	All permit fees and liaison officers;
4.	Transport to base camp to/from Kathmandu, for you and personal equipment only (boots, ice axe, clothing, sleeping bag), including accommodation and meals on the road;
5.	Yak transport for personal equipment only (boots, ice axe, clothing, sleeping bag) from the road to and from advanced basecamp;
6.	Emergency equipment and supplies: medical oxygen, gamow bag, base camp medical kit, high-altitude medical kits, etcetera;
7.	Access to team fixed ropes and camps (sites, not tents), coordinated with our own "full-service" climbing team.
8.	Other necessary services and supplies (ie: extra yaks, trek services, basecamp meals, high altitude services and equipment), may be purchased and hired at minimal expense. We offer basic climb "packages" as noted below, or, we can furnish individual items such as tents, stoves, gas, food, etcetera.

1.	4 Sep, 2004	(Saturday) Arrive Kathmandu (1,300 metres). Hotels in Kathmandu at your own expense;
2.	5 Sep	Hand over passport to China Embassy, begin processing of Chinese Visa. Training and equipment review at hotel in Kathmandu;
3.	6 Sep	Receive processed visa from Chinese embassy. Hotel;
4.	7 Sep	Begin Expedition! Bus to Zhangmu, Tibet (2500 metres); drive to Nyalam (3,750 m). Hotels in Tibet, at organizer's expense;
5.	8 Sep	Rest in Nyalam (3,750 metres). Walk in the surrounding hills, hang out in the Tashi Amdo teashop. Hotel;
6.	9 Sep	Drive to Tingri at 3900 metres. Hotel;
7.	10 Sep	Drive to Chinese Base, 4700 metres, Camp;
8.	11 Sep	Rest at Chinese Base;
9.	12 Sep	Walk halfway to advanced base camp, camp at 5100 metres;
10.	13 Sep	Walk to advanced base camp at 5600 metres. Rest
11.	14 Sep	Rest, training, and organization at advanced base camp;
12.	15 Sep	Walk to camp 1 at 6200 metres, return to advanced base camp.
13.	16 Sep	Rest in advanced base camp;
14.	17 Sep	Walk to camp 1, Sleep;
15.	18 Sep	Explore the route to Camp 2 at 6700 metres. Return to advanced base camp.
16.	19 Sep	Rest in advanced base camp;
17.	20 Sep	Walk to camp 1 and sleep there;
18.	21 Sep	Walk to camp 2 and sleep there;
19.	22 Sep	Explore the route to camp 3 at 7400 metres. Return to advanced base camp. Rest;
20.	23 Sep	Rest in advanced base camp;
21.	24 Sep	Rest in advanced base camp;
22.	25 Sep	Walk to camp 1 and sleep there;
23.	26 Sep	Walk to camp 2 and sleep there;
24.	27 Sep	Walk to camp 3 and sleep there;
25.	28 Sep	Summit Attempt if the weather is good and you feel healthy, if not return to advanced base camp;
26.	29 Sep	Rest in advanced base camp;
27.	30 Sep	Rest in advanced base camp;
28.	1 Oct	Walk to camp 1 and sleep there;
29.	2 Oct	Walk to camp 2 and sleep there;
30.	3 Oct	Walk to camp 3 and sleep there;
31.	4 Oct	Summit attempt;
32.	5 Oct	Summit attempt, descend to camp 2;
33.	6 Oct	Descend to advanced base camp, pack and prepare to depart;
34.	7 Oct	Final packing, walk down from advanced base camp to Chinese base, drive to Tingri and spend the night;
35.	8 Oct	Drive from Tingri to Kathmandu;
36.	9 Oct	Celebration Banquet. Packing and final shopping in Kathmandu;
37.	10 Oct	Say Good-bye to your new friends, Departure for home