Page 8 - 2014 AMA Summer

Exercise Turquoise Goddess
Post Exercise Report – Cho Oyu 8201 metres
Written by Chris Good
Stood outside my tent at Camp 3 at one o’clock in the morning on 1st October 2013, I could feel the extreme cold, lack of oxygen and a surge of excitement rushing through me. We
had spent weeks acclimatising and hauling equipment and food up the mountain and were now only 700 metres and six hours hard work away from the summit of the sixth largest mountain in the world, Cho Oyu at 8,201 metres. However, although the ‘Turquoise Goddess’ had been kind to us so far, I wondered whether our luck and the worsening weather would hold?
My ambition to climb Cho Oyu had been prompted the year before on an excellent Joint Service Alpine Meet in Andermatt, Switzerland. Keen to build on my experience of climbing at altitude in the Alps, I was determined to tackle an 8,000 metre peak and
recognised a superb opportunity to visit Tibet as well. Cho Oyu lies in the Mahalangur Himal along the Nepalese/Tibet border and is a technically straightforward climb which provides a fantastic introduction to the world’s
fourteen highest peaks.
This was a civilian non- guided expedition that met in Kathmandu, Nepal and then travelled across the border to neighbouring Tibet. Unlike the lush green hills of the Hunku Valley on the Nepalese side of
the border, the drive to Base Camp across the Tibetan Plateau was set against a moonscape of rock and moraine. However, the small Chinese military camp and a concentration of yak herders at Base Camp brought the ‘Himalayan Highway’ to an end and signalled the start of our approach march to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 5,700 metres.
The move to ABC proved to be an adventure in itself and our truck load of equipment and supplies made their way to our ‘home’ for the next four weeks on the back of a herd of temperamental yaks. Once established, ABC provided the bedrock from which the team could conduct its training and launch five successive surges up the mountain to establish camp 1 (6,400m), camp 2 (7,200m), and camp 3 (7,500m). Remarkably, the height gain (and loss) achieved during the five lifts was the equivalent of climbing the mountain three times and the team welcomed a three day rest period at ABC prior to the summit attempt.
Other than tents and oxygen cylinders, the team elected to carry all of its own equipment and supplies up to camp 3 and did not use porters throughout the expedition. However,
the herculean effort of our three sherpas, Phurba, Lakpa
and Ongchhu,
must not go
Me at Puja Ceremony (Advanced Base Camp) where the 7th Para RHA flag was ‘blessed’ prior to the climb
6 ARMY MOUNTAINEER