Ultimate
Ascents, the worlds premier non-profit
mountaineering school will be leading an
expedition to Cho Oyu, the world's 6th highest
mountain, starting March 26. Ultimate
Ascents offers meticulously organized and
professionally executed expeditions to all corners
of the globe. Ultimate Ascents is not a
commercial guide service but rather an
educational institution helping climbers achieve
their goals, however lofty they may be! Further
more, all profits from Ultimate Ascents
expeditions are donated to either charitable
organizations working for positive change in the
areas we explore or towards our free youth
leadership through climbing programs offered
across the Western United States.
Ultimate
Ascents Cho Oyu 2001 will be lead by veteran
8000 meter peak instructor Fabrizio Zangrilli.
Besides being highly qualified, (Fabrizio has
been on 7 different 8000 meter peaks including
K2 and Everest) Fabrizio embodies the Ultimate
Ascents climbing philosophy. He firmly
believes that climbing is more about the process
than just standing on the summit. Like
Ultimate Ascents, Fabrizio is interested in
helping create competent, self-reliant
climbers.
Like
all Ultimate Ascents expeditions, Cho Oyu 2001
is limited to just 3 climbers to minimize our
environmental impact, to ensure all climbers get
expert one on one instruction, and to add a
higher degree of safety for all involved.
This year we have a particularly strong
international team. The team members are:
expedition leader, Fabrizio Zangrilli (London,
United Kingdom), Assistant Leader: Hamish
Robertson, Scott Kress (Toronto, Canada),
Ricardo Moreno (Guadalajara, Mexico), and Cathy
Ann Taylor (San Francisco, USA).
Stay
tuned and make sure you follow these highly skilled climbers as
they attempt the 6th highest mountain in the
world!
Dispatch
One:
Welcome to the Ultimate Ascents Cho Oyu 2001
expedition. Over the next six to seven
weeks we will be writing as often as we can and
keeping you updated about our adventures.
Fabrizio, Cathy-Ann, Ricardo, Hamish and I
(Scott) have been in Katmandu for a few days
now. It is from here that we will make all
our final preparations for the mountain. If you
have never been to Katmandu before it is well
worth the trip.
I
arrived late at night to find the city relatively
quiet and charming. Things change quickly here, as of 4:30 am the next
morning every car, truck, motorcycle, rickshaw, dog
and pigeon was making their way past my hotel window.
No longer able to sleep I ventured down to the street
to see what Katmandu has to offer. Climbing
shops are abundant and you can find just about
anything you need. The streets are full of
vendors selling many items all at excellent prices.
Our first team meeting was to get acquainted and plan
what needed to be done before we begin our climb. We
are all different people brought together through a single
passion; to climb an 8000m peak. Some of the team
members know each other and others are new. What I
have learned of our team is promising. We are strong
of skills and all seem to have relaxed personalities.
I see a well balance and strong team.
The
Team:
Leader:
Fabrizio Zangrilli, USA & UK
Assistant
Leader: Hamish Robertson
Australia
Climber: Scott Kress
Canada
Climber: Ricardo Moreno
Mexico
Climber: Cathy Ann Taylor, USA
We
met with our trekking agent to go over our permit,
transportation, and gear and to meet the two most
important members of our team. Denja and Lapka
will be our base camp cooks; they are two of the best.
Official business completed, we set off to the city to
see the sights. Navigating is a challenge and one
must always be on the lookout for motor vehicles that
somehow avoid each other and pedestrians by a very
small margin. There are so many sights too see and I
know we will not have time to see them all. Tuesday
morning we begin our long drive to Cho Oyu base camp.
Wish us luck. That is all for now. We will write again
when we can.
Scott
Kress for Fabrizio Zangrilli and the Ultimate Ascents
team.
Dispatch
Two: Ultimate
Ascents Cho Oyu 2001-Update from Advanced Base
Camp.
Hi
everyone, here is our first update from Cho Oyu
ABC (advanced base camp). We arrived at Base
Camp (15,700ft) March 31 and spent two days
acclimatizing in the cold dusty wind. With
22 Yaks carrying 40kg each we began our two day
trek to ABC. Our first day was very long
due to the cold and dry conditions that made it
difficult to find water. Along the way we
saw a lot of wildlife including; eagles, deer,
hares, marmot and lamagier. Our day turned
out to be 9 hours and all of the team were
feeling the altitude. The next day we set
off late for our 4 hour trek to ABC (18,100ft).
We are the second team to arrive at ABC.
The first team being a Swiss expedition of 12
people. We unloaded our gear and began to
set up our camp. After two days in ABC
getting used to the altitude and organizing gear
we made a carry to 1/2 camp at 19,200ft where we
deposited a few tents, gas, stoves, food and
climbing gear. The walk to this camp was very
long and tiring but not technically difficult.
The trail follows a glacial moraine and seems to
never end. Although it took only 6 hours
on return trip it was a tough day in the cold wind.
The mountain conditions are dry this year and
this should make the climbing conditions above
camp three interesting. The Swiss team has
already established Camp 1 and has made a
short foray above and tell us that the snow
conditions are excellent and safe. We have had a
chance to meet some of the Swiss team members
and they are a good bunch. We have decided
to share some of the work needed to reach the
summit. Unfortunately it seems that our
perfect situation of only us and the Swiss will
end in about a week when other teams begin to
arrive. By this time we should be well
established on the mountain so we should not be
affected by this influx of people. Life at ABC
is good but quite cold. We have
the best cook and assistant in with us.
Kippa and Lakpa constantly amaze us with Yak
steaks, pasta and last night we had an apple
cake for desert. It is not all fun and games
however. It
is important that we rest now to prepare for the
work ahead.
Fabrizio
Zangrilli
Dispatch
Three: Hey
EverestNews.com, Its Fabrizio, how is everything
going?
All
is well here at Cho Oyu, I am emailing from Kari
Kobler's base camp, and I probably have some
breaking news for you THE FIRST 8000m SUMMIT
THIS SEASON? Kari and his 12 member expedition
from Switzerland managed on the 11th of April to
put 9 clients and 6 Sherpas on the summit of Cho
Oyu!
All
of his members are back in base camp and all is
well. As far as I know two of his members had
climbed GII and Shisha Pangma previously with
Kari, so it is quite a happy mood here in base
camp. There summit day was a bit cold but using
weather sent from Swiss forecast (Meteotest) he
was able to pick the only day possible to summit
for the past 10 days.
Kari
was the first expedition to base camp just
beating us, Ultimate Ascents, by one week and we
had base camp to ourselves. We have managed to
put in Camp 2 and now a few of the other teams
have arrived. This morning Kari and I
[Fabrizio], helped an Italian expedition send
one man back down to the road who was suffering
from altitude sickness, and was in need of
immediate medical support.
Ultimate
ascents now owns the rope and maintains the
route and Kari has done a great job taking all
of his equipment from the mountain. Our team
heads back up in the morning to prepare for our
summit attempt in about 10 days while Kari has
another expedition to Shisha Pangma with a
medical research group.
So
that is all for now from Cho Oyu. Fabrizio
Zangrilli
