Page 27 - 2006/07 AMA Winter

THE CHO OYU AFFA By Stu Macdonald
Cho Oyu, the ‘Turquoise
Goddess’ is one of the
world’s fourteen peaks
exceeding 8000m and
8201m is the sixth highest
mountain in the world. It strad­
dles the Tibet - Nepal Border
just 30 km west of Everest.
The mountain first attracted
interest from British moun­
taineers when an expedition
including Edmund Hillary, North West Face prior to George Lowe, Tom Bourdillon attempting Mt Everest in and Eric Shipton attempted 2007.
the Northwest face in 1952.
Despite their considerable The expedition comprised of experience they were unable Simon Hall, Andy Wilkinson, to find a route through the Gordon Clarke, James formidable ice cliffs at 6600m Lancashire and Dominic and settled for an ascent of Porter. Although none of the the more modest objective team had attempted an
taineering ethics and bud­
getary constraints allowed for
just two High Altitude Sherpas
(Kristna and Sundoo) to pro­
vide local knowledge and
Asian Trekking were
employed to provide minimal­
ist Base Camp facilities for the was sufficient to send an
Lama Sherpa reached the sary. Gulf Airlines may have summit exhausted and frost­ indirectly saved our lives by bitten. In recent years the granting us a 40kg kit maotuntain has been utilised by allowance at the last moment! many parties as a suitable A combination of moun­
military base monitors the bor­ der and the old Nangpa La trade route across the Tibetan - Chinese border. A recent Italian expedition has been disrupted when a lorry had been parked up without the handbrake being applied and had rolled down the incline crushing tents and equipment. Fortunately the tents were not occupied, but the damage
objective prior to attempting Everest. Ex PRECIOUS AIR DRAGON 2006 was a joint expedition, with members of the TA and RMR that aimed to make an ascent of Cho Oyu,
8000m peak before there was a wide range of experience from seasoned Alpinists to
duration of the five week expedition. Whether by acci­ dent or design, the military’s smallest expedition to ever attempt an 8000m peak even­ tually crossed its line of depar­ ture and began to move albeit rather shakily into ‘uncharted waters.’
expedition straight home with­ out actually getting to grips with the mountain! From there, yaks were the only transport, and there was never a dull moment with the beasts! Despite these chal­ lenges we arrived at Advance Camp at an altitude of 5700m and established our Spartan home for the next 4 weeks. A Buddhist blessing sought per­ mission from the Mountain Gods to climb Cho Oyu and English, Scottish, Welsh, Sherpa and Tibetan search for a spiritual equilibrium was assisted by good humour fuelled by Chinese Brandy and Lhasa beer.
Further acclimatisation fol­ lowed at Advance Camp and gave us the opportunity to liaise with other expeditions and commercial firms that had
Palaung Ri (7012m). Afterthe
British success on Everest in
1953, K2 and Cho Oyu were
the two highest unclimbed various excursions to the
mountains in the world and a wider ranges including Mt buying of kit and food whilst strong Austrian team led by McKinley (Alaska) and fending off the enthusiastic the accomplished moun­ Aconcagua (Argentina). youths trying to sell us copi­ taineer and writer Herbert Mindful of the original tactics ous amounts of dope. We
adopted on the first ascent, soon flew to Lhasa and began the expedition adopted a the overland journey to Base
Tichy turned their attention to
the latter. In contrast to other
Himalayan expeditions at the
time Tichy operated with the
minimum of support choosing
to utilise just three climbers,
seven Sherpas and 3 dozen
porters. On the 19 October rucksacks or North Face kit ingly impregnable ice cliffs
1954 Hebert Tichy, Sep bags was deemed a luxury and rock bands. We arrived at Joechler and Pasang Dawa item and therefore unneces­ Chinese Base Camp where a
somewhat minimalist approach in sync with the con­ cept of ‘small is beautiful’. In practise this meant that any kit that did not fit into personal
Camp. On 15 September we were treated to our first view of the mighty bastion of Cho Oyu - the North West face clearly visible with its seem­
After arriving in Kathmandu there followed the usual panic