Wednesday, April 20, 2011

FTA Cho Oyu Expedition 2011 - Update from ABC

C1 on Cho Oyu
from stu in the usa office
20 april, 2011
Ben has dropped a voice dispatch from ABC at 5700m (see below). Everyone is doing well and they are well on schedule at this time!

Sounds like the plan is to make a first carry to C1 tomorrow and officially get the climb under way! C1 is situated in a small bowl and in busy years fills up quite a bit. With a small number of teams this season we shoul have the pick of spots.

As it is very windy there it is often avisable to set the tents down lower in the bowl despite losing the nicer views from the balcony above. In the image above you can see where FTA placed tents in 2008 (lowest group of yellow tents with people hovering about) and where some other teams had tents up higher (farthest away).

In 2008 there were many tents destroyed and even blown off the mountain in the upper sections during a particularly fierce wind storm.  Meanwhile those in the protected area came away with some damage to a few tents. Always a difficult choice between views and safety though as you can see in the image below that our view was still quite nice!
view from C1 on Cho Oyu

Enjoy listening in!



More news as we have it!

2 comments:

JackieK said...

To Ben & team on Cho Oyu at ABC. Good luck for your carry to Camp 1 tomorrow. Praying to the weather gods.
Best wishes love family & friends in Oz.

Nicole said...

Love hearing your voice Benny!!! Glad to hear you're all well ... here's hoping that it continues all the way (to the top and back). Stay strong x