Cho Oyu 2007: Summits, Major Rescue, and a Controversy Flashback
October 3, 2007
Looks like it was a major night on Cho Oyu. Many teams pushed for the summit and higher camps, a 72 year old successfully made the top and a controversy brewing once again as climbers pass another in need of help.
Summit Climb, Adventure Consultants, and Others reach the Summit
Our team has just summited Cho Oyu! 6 members summited in difficult conditions after our camp 1 was blown away twice
This is coming from Adventure Consultants. Many teams have been battling high winds and snow for days now, wondering if they would actually get the chance to summit or not. The Himalayan weather this fall has not been nice to many of the expeditions–forcing some to leave all together.
Thankfully a small weather window has opened up on Cho Oyu and as is the case in these types of scenarios, a mad rush to the summit began.
Adventure Consultants as well as the Summit Climb team are reporting successful summits today. Another summit of note:
72 Year old Boris Korshunov Makes Summit
Boris Korshunov, climbing with the 7Summits team has successfully topped out. &Summits is reporting that Boris headed out this yesterday on a routine trek to Camp 3 from Camp 2. Upon reaching Camp 3, Boris realized that the tent he was planning on staying in was not there. He climbed on.
At 4pm, it was noted that Boris had successfully made the summit. Thankfully he was ok, as this was not a scheduled part of the routine. The rest of the 7Summits team is planning on heading up in 3-4 days.
Major Rescue Enacted, Climbers Pass on By
In a bit of a sidenote today, there is also some disturbing news coming from Cho Oyu today involving a climber who slipped and fell down the slope breaking his leg.
Field Touring Alpine who helped in the rescue, along with Alex Abramov of the 7Summits team, had this to say:
At my usual rest spot, just below the big ice cliff, I saw a man hunched over sort of whimpering or crying.
There were many people walking past him focused on their own summit attempts. I sat down beside the man and asked him if he was ok. He told me he had just summited and that his partner had fallen and broken his leg while descending.
Chris, who has wrote this fine report of the events that occured on Cho Oyu today, took part in a high altitude rescue attempt..that in the end proved successful. I do find it a bit disturbing that other climbers are still passing by someone in need of help.
Luckily 7Summits and the Field Touring Alpine Club were able to lend a hand and get the climber down to safety. He did suffer a broken leg, but is well at ABC. To read the complete report from Field Touring Alpine on this desperate rescue attempt, CLICK HERE. Head on down the page to October third.
As we can all see, Cho Oyu proved to be quite the obstacle. There are still many teams heading up to higher camps, and others pushing for the summit, and we should get more news from ExplorersWeb in the next day or so on more of the great action on Cho Oyu.
There needs to be a special mention to ExplorersWeb and The Adventure Blog for the tip-off on todays action.
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Written by Jason A. Hendricks · Filed Under Cho Oyu |
