Summitclimb Cho Oyu 2009: Welcome to Tibet

We crossed into Tibet 2 days ago uneventfully and the customs official said, “Welcome to Tibet”.

I’m here with 13 people from several countries; including Kenya, the United States, Switzerland, Britain, Romania, Spain, Greece, and possibly Ireland. We are currently on a hill outside of Nyalam at 3800 metres and the weather is absolutely beautiful with very perfect skies, little tiny winds, and we can see many Himalayan peaks around us. We’re looking forward to a great expedition and to lunch. Thank you. Bye.

Today we woke up very early in Zhangmu, had a tasty breakfast, and drove to Nyalam. The road is under construction and we drove past some big rock-slides in the dark. Our vehicles are two, one a very large comfortable air conditioned Toyota bus and the other a large Chinese cargo truck. The road is overall in excellent shape so we are quite well provided for.

Upon reaching the 3620 metre high village of Nyalam, we disembarked at the Tashi hotel and had some tea and wandered around town, then had a delicious lunch of tasty vegetables and meat. Then we walked around town some more and sun bathed, read, rested, played cards, and had another delicious dinner. We plan to spend tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night here acclimating, before making the drive up to Tingri the day after tomorrow.

The team is doing great, super healthy, and Tibet is really beautiful. The weather has been amazingly clear with not a cloud in the sky and only very light winds. It is so quiet and peaceful here and the Tibetans are amazingly friendly. Thanks for following our expedition and we will keep you up to date!

25 April, 2009:

Hi there. We are in Zhangmu for the evening, having crossed into Tibet.

Everyone is doing fine. We planned to go to Nyalam today but due to road construction decided to delay it till early tomorrow morning. We received our visas and travel papers in Kathmandu yesterday and had a good orientation with all of the members. We are very positive about the expedition and it looks like we have a fine team!!! Will be keeping you informed as we slowly travel toward basecamp, acclimatising carefully as we go!!!! So far it has been a very smooth and easy ascent.

Team Roster:

• Dan Mazur - USA (leader) 
• Ms. Martha Johnson - USA
• Ms. Eva Ruszuly - Romania
• Rick Wilkerson - USA
• Mark Delstanche - UK
• Stefano Ricci - Italy
• Zsombor Tulit - Romania
• Fernando Urizar - Spain
• Urs Jäggi - Switzerland
• Conan Bliss - USA
• Jeffrey Gaillard - USA
• Arthur Barbour - UK
• Stefanos Voutselas - Greece

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