__NOTOC__ Cho Oyu (

Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means "

Turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of yea ...

Goddess" in

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the '' Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

. The mountain stands on the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Province No. 1 Province No. 1 (proposed names: Kirat Autonomous State, Kirat, Limbuwan, Khambuwan Rashtriya Morcha, Nepal, Khambuwan, Mount Everest, Sagarmatha, Virata, Birat and Koshi River, Koshi) is the easternmost of the seven Provinces of Nepal, province ...

border. Just a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is

Nangpa La Nangpa La ( also known as ) (el. ) is a high mountain pass crossing the Himalayas and the Nepal-Tibet Autonomous Region border a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu and some northwest of Mount Everest. A foot-trail over Nangpa La is the traditional ...

(5,716m/18,753 ft), a glaciated pass that serves as the main trading route between the

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live ...

and the Khumbu's Sherpas. This pass separates the Khumbu and

Rolwaling Rolwāling Valley ( ne, रोल्वालिङ् भ्याली. ), knows as a (Gaurishankar) rural municipality, is a section of the Himalayas in east-central Nepal along the Tibet border. Rolwaling Himal includes Melungtse 7181m and M ...

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

. Due to its proximity to this pass and the generally moderate slopes of the standard northwest ridge route, Cho Oyu is considered the easiest 8,000 metre peak to climb. It is a popular objective for

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

ly guided parties.

Height

Cho Oyu's height was originally measured at and at the time of the first ascent it was considered the seventh highest mountain on earth, after Dhaulagiri at ( Manaslu, now , was also estimated lower at ). A 1984 estimate of made it move up to sixth place. New measurements made in 1996 by the Government of Nepal Survey Department and the

Finnish Meteorological Institute The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI; fi, Ilmatieteen laitos; sv, Meteorologiska institutet) is the government agency responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. It is a part of the Ministry of Transport ...

in preparation for the Nepal Topographic Maps put the height at 8,188 m, one remarkably similar to the used by Edmund Hillary in his 1955 book ''High Adventure''.

Climbing history

Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the

Joint Himalayan Committee The Mount Everest Committee was a body formed by the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society to co-ordinate and finance the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition to Mount Everest and all subsequent British expeditions to clim ...

of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by

Eric Shipton Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Early years Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was eigh ...

and included Edmund Hillary,

Tom Bourdillon Thomas Duncan Bourdillon ( ; 16 March 1924 – 29 July 1956) was an English mountaineer and member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition which made the first ascent of Mount Everest. He died in the Valais, Switzerland, on 29 July 1956 aged ...

and George Lowe. A foray by Hillary and Lowe was stopped due to technical difficulties and avalanche danger at an ice cliff above and a report of Chinese troops a short distance across the border influenced Shipton to retreat from the mountain rather than continue to attempt to summit. The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954, via the north-west ridge by

Herbert Tichy Herbert Tichy (1 June 1912 - 26 September 1987) was an Austrian writer, geologist, journalist and climber. His first ascent of Cho Oyu was on 19 October 1954, with Sepp Jöchler and Pasang Dawa Lama.Sale, Richard. ''On Top of the World: Climbing ...

, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n expedition. Cho Oyu was the fifth 8000 metre peak to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950,

in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 and K2 in July 1954. Until the ascent of Mount Everest by Reinhold Messner and

Peter Habeler Peter Habeler (born 22 July 1942) is an Austrian mountaineer. He was born in Mayrhofen, Austria. He developed an interest in mountain climbing at age six.http://www.everesthistory.com/climbers/habeler Among his accomplishments as a mountaineer a ...

in 1978, this was the highest peak climbed without supplemental oxygen. Chooyu

Cho Oyu is considered the easiest

eight-thousander The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...

, with the lowest death-summit ratio (th of Annapurna's). It is the second most climbed

after Everest (whose height makes it the most popular), and has over four times the ascents of the third most popular

Gasherbrum II Gasherbrum II ( ur, ; ); surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan a ...

. It is marketed as a "trekking peak", achievable for climbers with high fitness, but low mountaineering experience. It has a broadly flat summit plateau with no

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

(the traditional

prayer flag A Tibetan prayer flag is a colorful rectangular cloth, often found strung along trails and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside and for other purposes. Prayer flags are believed to have originated withi ...

s on Cho Oyu's summit plateau do not mark the "technical" summit), which can be a source of confusion, and debate, amongst climbers (see Elizabeth Hawley).

View

Timeline

*1952 First reconnaissance of north-west face by Edmund Hillary and party. *1954 First ascent by Austrians Joseph Jöchler and

, and Pasang Dawa Lama (Nepal) *1958 Second ascent of the peak, by an

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n expedition. Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama reaches the peak for the second time. First death on Cho Oyu. *1959 Four members are killed in an avalanche during a failed international women's expedition. *1964 Controversial third ascent by a German expedition as there is no proof of reaching the summit. Two mountaineers die of exhaustion in camp 4 at . *1978 Edi Koblmüller and Alois Furtner of

summit via the extremely difficult southeast face. *1983 Reinhold Messner succeeds on his fourth attempt, with

Hans Kammerlander Hans Kammerlander (born 6 December 1956, Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy) is an Italian mountaineer, living in Ahornach, a hamlet nearby Sand in Taufers. He has climbed 13 of the 14 8000m peaks. In 1984, together with Reinhold Messner he was the ...

and Michael Dacher. *1984 Věra Komárková (USA) and Dina Štěrbová (Czechoslovakia) become the first women to climb Cho Oyu. Štěrbová is also the first woman from Czechoslovakia to climb an 8000er. *1985 On February 12,

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski make the first winter ascent via a new route on the southeast face. It is the only winter ascent on an

made on a new route and the first winter ascent without additional oxygen support. The ascent was repeated three days later by Andrzej Heinrich and

Jerzy Kukuczka Józef Jerzy Kukuczka (24 March 1948 in Katowice, Poland – 24 October 1989 Lhotse, Nepal) was a Polish alpine and high-altitude climber. Born in Katowice, his family origin is Silesian Goral. On 18 September 1987, he became the second m ...

, with Kukuczka setting an additional record for climbing two eight-thousanders during the same winter, as he had earlier climbed Dhaulagiri. *1988 On November 2, a Slovenian expedition consisting of Iztok Tomazin, Roman Robas, Blaž Jereb, Rado Nadvešnik, Marko Prezelj, and Jože Rozman, reach the summit via the never before climbed north face. *1994 On May 13 Carlos Carsolio sets a world record speed ascent from base camp to summit, ascending in 18 hours and 45 minutes. *1994 First solo ascent via the South West face by Yasushi Yamanoi. *2000 Russian-Finnish expedition of nine climbers summitted the top, but two of them disappeared in the attempt and presumed dead. *2004 Second summit by a double amputee (

Mark Inglis Mark Joseph Inglis (born 27 September 1959) is a New Zealand mountaineer, researcher, winemaker and motivational speaker. He holds a degree in Human Biochemistry from Lincoln University, New Zealand, and has conducted research on leukaemia. H ...

) *2007 Second Indian ascent. Expedition led by Abhilekh Singh Virdi. *2009 Clifton Maloney, husband of US Representative Carolyn Maloney and at that time the oldest American to summit an

, died at age 71 after summiting on 25 September. His final words were "I’m the happiest man in the world. I’ve just summited a beautiful mountain." *2011 Dutch climber Ronald Naar dies after becoming unwell at .

Notes

References

Sources

* *Herbert Tichy, ''Cho Oyu - Gnade der Götter'', (Vienna: Ullstein 1955)

External links

Cho Oyu page on Summitpost.org

*
Ascents and fatalities statistics

Cho Oyu from Kyrgyzstan

{{Authority control Eight-thousanders of the Himalayas Mountains of Tibet China–Nepal border International mountains of Asia Mountains of the Province No. 1