Our Cho-Oyu Route

Once in Base Camp, we meet our Tibetan yak drivers and their animals. Yaks carry our loads to Advance Base Camp (18,500’) at the foot of the famous Nangpa-La Pass.

The next three-four days are spent establishing Advanced Base Camp and making short acclimatization forays to the lower reaches of the West Ridge. With the assistance of our Sherpa team, we place Camp I (21,000’) atop the West Ridge. Over the next ten days we establish Camp II (23,100’) and Camp III (24,500’). We repeatedly move up and down the mountain to enhance strong acclimatization and overall fitness. Once our last camp is set and the team has rested for a few days at Advanced Base Camp, we begin the summit climb. Prior to our summit attempt, team members will spend the night at Camp III sleeping on supplemental oxygen, strengthening and abetting the body’s circulation systems.

Our summit attempt begins between midnight and 1:00am. We will climb with supplemental oxygen on summit day. From High Camp we ascend the West Face through a rock band and up snow slopes of 25-40º to reach the West Ridge proper. This gentle ridge leads to the large summit plateau at approximately 26,000'. From here we spend the next hour traveling across this plateau to reach the true summit and a spectacular 360º view which includes Everest, Lhotse, Ama Dablam and an array of Himalayan peaks. To the north lies the Tibetan plateau (the highest in the world) and to the south stand hundreds of Nepalese peaks.

After reaching the summit, our team descends to Camp II. It takes approximately five days to clear the mountain and move equipment back to Base Camp. Once we have arrived at Base Camp and said farewell to our Tibetan yak-drivers, we begin our return to Kathmandu.