We heard from the Cho Oyu team today and everything is going really well. They had a great hike up to Intermediate camp yesterday and are planning to trek to 5,500m/17,600ft today. Tomorrow they will head to Intermediate camp for a night before heading higher and into Advanced Base Camp where they will stay.

Unlike on other 8000m peaks, where most of the climber’s time is spent at base camp with shorter forays up to Advanced base camp and beyond, on Cho Oyu climbers actually continue up with Advanced Base Camp becoming their main home base. Once they reach ABC they won’t drop back down again until they finish their climb and are on their way home. 

It’s a relatively flat, short walk up to Intermediate Camp tomorrow and a great day for acclimatization. It is here that the climbers will truly get into the mountainous terrain of Himalayan scale. Until now, they have been surrounded by smaller rocky protrusions of the Tibetan plateau.

Above Intermediate Camp they will set foot on glacial moraine for the first time and traverse the eastern side of the glacier where Advanced Base Camp is set up. 

All the best, 

-CTSS Team