Summitclimb Cho Oyu Expedition Autumn 2006: Time to move soon!

This is Phil Crampton reporting for the SummitClimb Cho Oyu Expedition. What a difference a couple of days make.  The 26th and 27th of September have seen gorgeous weather days on the mountain, which went against some of our weather reports we had received.  Yesterday morning, many of the large commercial expeditions were just hoping to salvage some equipment from Camp 1 and Camp 2 and then depart the mountain at the earliest possible moment. We had decided to stay and sit out the bad weather and we think our decision will pay off.  Needless to say, most of those groups have now decided to stay and attempt the summit.

Today, September 27th, saw a handful of climbers go to Camp 2.  The mountain has received a huge amount of snowfall, and these brave souls decided only to give the snow one day to settle before heading up. Many teams are planning to start to move to higher camps tomorrow, as many as 20.  We would like to avoid any dangerous traffic jams on the fixed ropes and we have decided to depart Advanced Base Camp the day after the majority of the other expeditions, forming two summit groups.

Our first summit group will depart on the 29th of September and hopefully summit on October 2nd.  This group will consist of Englishmen Stephen Backshall and Martin Holton, Australian David Cole, the Finnish climber Samuli Mansikka, Tibetans Luda and Dunba and myself.

Our second group will depart on the 30th of September and hopefully summit on October 3rd.  This group will consist of the Englishman Lee Farmer, Frenchmen Alain Denamiel and Philippe Caboche, Americans Michael Hsu and Jason Marsh, Australian Philip Ling, and the Tibetans Ping Tso and Gesang.

Our Sherpas went to Camp 1 today and and dug out all of our tents.  They were completely covered with snow but survived with no damage at all. Tomorrow the Sherpas will excavate Camp 2 in preparation for our summit attempts.  I hope to send another dispatch in a few days with good news of summits.  Phil Crampton with 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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