Summitclimb Cho Oyu Expedition Autumn 2006: Phil is back with details

This is Phil Crampton reporting for SummitClimb Cho Oyu Expedition.   Today, September 23, saw the third continuous day of snowfall on the mountain. Steve Marsh, Steve Lawes, and Philippe Caboche all returned to Advanced Base Camp today from Camp 1, where they were hoping to advance to Camp 2 before the bad weather set in.

Jason Marsh, Michael Hsu, and the Finnish climbers Samuli Mansikka and Jere Pettersson are still hunkered down at Camp 1 hoping for a break in the weather.  Our weather forecast predicts another day of snowfall and already there is knee deep snow at 6,400 meters and even deeper snow at 7,100 meters.  Several teams have already departed Advanced Base Camp for Katmandu as their departure dates had arrived before they even got a chance to reach Camp 3.

We still have two weeks remaining on our schedule, and with most members having already slept at Camp 2, we are confident of making three summit attempts once the weather has improved and the snow over Camp 2 has consolidated for safe travel. 

The remaining members at ABC have been occupying their time during the storm period by playing international Scrabble.  It's very interesting watching and listening to Australians and Englishmen making up complete nonsense words and having a BBC TV prounouncer judge over the proceedings.  Our 62-year-old Italian member, Giofranco Valenti, keeps us amused with his stories of women, wine and song.  He truly is an inspiration to all of us who are somewhat younger than he.

Our summit strategy has changed once again due to the deep snow on the mountain.  We now all plan to use Camp 3 as our departure camp instead of Camp 2, as the trail-breaking from Camp 2 would be too exhausting to the summit.  Hopefully we will report on some good weather in the next few days and our progress in establishing Camp 3 at 7,450 meters.  Phil Crampton SummitClimb Cho Oyu 2006.

Dispatch Index

Summitclimb Cho Oyu 2006 Expedition Team:

Dan Mazur. England and USA. Expedition organiser. 

Phil Crampton. England and USA. Expedition Leader.

Arnold Coster. Holland. Expedition Leader. 

Philip Ling.  Australia and St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria. Expedition leader in training.

Philippe Caboche. France.

Alain Denamiel. France.

Martin Holton. England and Belgium.

Samuli Mansikka. Finland.

Jere Pettersson. Finland.

Thomas Sexton. USA.

David Cole. Australia.

Lee Farmer. UK.

Stephen Lawes. UK.

Jason Marsh. USA.

Stephen Marsh. UK.

Stephen Backshall. UK.

Paul Burgess. Canada.

Gianfranco Valente. Italy.

Michael Hsu. USA and China.

Tibetan staff list for the current Cho Oyu expedition:

Head Climbing "Sirdar": Luda

Regular Mt. Climbing Staff: Dunba, Ping Tso, & Gesang

Personal Climbing "Sherpa": Tseren Dee'anja

Cooks: Sange

Cook helper: Chanba

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