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Update #1 August
27, 2002 The IMG Cho Oyu team, led by Assistant
Guide Mike Hamill, left the USA on August 23 and arrived in Kathmandu
on the 25th, where they were met by Expedition Leader Ben Marshall,
who had arrived a couple days earlier to finish the food and equipment
packing with the Sherpas. The team spent one free day in Kathmandu
getting the Chinese visas, doing last minute preparations, and taking
part in a special Puja with the Sherpas at the monastery near
Boudhanath Stupa. All total the team is comprised of 2 guides,
10 climbers (3 guided and 7 non guided), 2 trekkers, 5 high altitude
Sherpas, and 2 Sherpa cooks. Here's the team roster as it appears on the
official permit... Click here for more... Update # 2 August 31, 2002 IMG Cho Oyu Expedition Leader Ben Marshall called by satellite phone at 10pm on August 31 (Washington State time) to say that the team had just arrived at Chinese Base Camp for Cho Oyu. In Tibet the time was about 10:30am on September 1. They had left Tingri that morning for the two hour drive to Base Camp, and were welcomed by the Sherpas who had gone ahead the day before to get it set up. This is about 15,000 feet, and will be the jumping off point for the expedition.... Click here for more... Update # 3 September 3, 2002: Ben Marshall reports that all is well at Chinese Base Camp with the team and that they were working on getting packed up, sorting yak loads, and getting the solar panels out so they could charge the batteries for the satellite phone, video cameras, and various music devices belonging to team members! The team is expecting the arrival of the yak drivers and yaks later today.... Click here for more... Update #4 September 6, 2002: Ben Marshall reports that most of the Cho Oyu team has moved into ABC at 18,500 feet, and is doing well. Three of the members, Kurt Weidmann, Mike Hamill, and Kaji Sherpa are staying down at BC for a couple days to shake off a chest cold. Otherwise, the trip to ABC went smoothly (with 40 plus yaks!) and everyone is safe and sound.... Click here for more.... Update #5 September 10, 2002: Ben Marshall reports that everyone had a nice first trip up to Camp 1 (20,500 feet) and has returned to Advanced Base Camp feeling good. The team is taking a rest day today, and the plan is to go back up to Camp 1 and sleep for a couple nights... Click here for more.... Update #6 September 12, 2002: Ben Marshall reports that all is well and that everyone is healthy and doing fine. On the 10th the guided group and the North Face group headed up to Camp 1, spent the night, climbed partway to Camp 2 the next day, and then descended to ABC. On the 11th the non guided climbers headed to Camp 1 to do the same thing.... Click here for more.... Cho Oyu Update #7 September 16, 2002: IMG Cho Oyu expedition leader Ben Marshall called in from ABC on Saturday night (Sept. 14) and reported feeling great after 3 days of rest at ABC. Assistant guide Mike Hamill has returned to ABC after seeing the trek team back to Nepal (word from Kathmandu is that both Kurt and Peter flew out of KTM on the 15th and are on their way home!).... Click here for more.... Cho Oyu Update #8 September 18, 2002: Ben Marshall reported in last night. After a trip to Camp 2, he and Rob descended to ABC... Click here for more.... Update # 9 September 20, 2002: Greetings. Ben Marshall phoned in this morning, it was the evening of the 20th over there in Tibet. Everyone is doing fine after 3 days of rest at Base Camp. Ben and some of the other expedition leaders have shared notes on plans for summit bids, and Ben indicated that a good number of teams, including ours, will start up on the 21st with summit bids in mind... Click here for more.... Update #10 September 23, 2002: Expedition leader Ben Marshall reported in from ABC this morning after the group was turned back by extremely high winds on their attempt to move up from C1 to C2. As Ben put it, the best decision was to tuck their tails between their legs and retreat.... Click here for more.... Update #11 September 27, 2002: Ben Marshall reported in from ABC with bad news and good news. The bad news is that they have suffered 4-5 days of terrible weather, lots of snowfall and heavy winds. He and Mike Hamill made a recon climb up to Camp 1 today to survey the damage, which was pretty bad..... Click here for more.... Update #12 October 1, 2002: Kris Erickson called to report that the IMG team had made the top (8201m) and that he could see the North Face of Mt. Everest...... Click here for more.... Update #13 October 2, 2002: I spoke to Expedition Leader Ben Marshall on the sat phone from Advanced Base Camp and got the lowdown on the IMG team’s successful climb of Cho Oyu. Ben described the last few weeks as a real roller coaster ride…with good weather, bad weather, lots of snow, wind, storm, aborted attempts, destroyed camps, and finally, a PERFECT day…..Click here for more.... Update #14 October 7, 2002: The Cho Oyu team successfully crossed the Friendship Bridge back into Nepal yesterday and completed the road journey back to Kathmandu. The expedition is now officially over! …..Click here for more.... |
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