Guide: Michael O’ Donnel, Casey Henley Team Members: Our 2004 Cho Oyu team: Kay LeClaire – Spokane, WA . Kay is currently pursuing the Seven Summits of the world. Having climbed 5 out of the 7, she has Carstensz and Everest left on her list. Cho Oyu will prepare Kay for her climb of Everest next spring. Bob Taylor – San Diego, CA. Bob has a wealth of climbing experience including successful climbs of Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Orizaba, many North American classics and numerous summits in the Bolivian Andes. Last summer he smoked up the north ridge of Mt. Baker. Brad Skidmore – Ft Thomas, KY. Brad has reached the summit of Aconcagua. He enjoys running when not working as a physician back home in Kentucky. Moira Smith - Vancouver, B. C. Moira has climbed 6 out of the 7 summits. Her climb of Cho Oyu will prepare her for her next objective, Mt. Everest. She enjoys climbing. mountaineering, ski touring and rock climbing in North America . As a geologist, Moira has traveled around the world including engaging in field work with geological mapping in the Northern Coast Range and St. Elias Range in British Columbia. Rick Grey – London, United Kingdom. Our guides say Rick is normally the strongest one on their rope team. Rick trains by running, swimming and playing squash. He’s successful climbed many of the Ecuador volcanoes including Chimborazo. Elizabeth Ayres – Tucson, AZ. Elizabeth will be trekking in with our Cho Oyu climbing team. She has climbed numerous peaks around the world including Island Peak in Nepal, Mt. Blanc in Europe, the Eiger in Switzerland and various classic alpine summits and rock climbing crags around the US. She enjoys swimming, hiking and climbing.

Dispatches

Welcome again to Mountain Madness’ annual Cho Oyu Post monsoon expedition!

We are lucky to have a great bunch of folks journeying with us, and we are sure to have many memorable and challenging times ahead!

The Tibetan’s have a folktale about Cho Oyu (meaning Turquoise God). The story goes that Cho Oyu fell in love with the Goddess Chomolungma (Everest), but was broken hearted when she married Makalu, her closer neighbor to the southeast. Cho Oyu never married and turned to face the opposite way of his beloved Chomolungma.

First summited in 1954 by a small Austrian/Tibetan expedition, Cho Oyu is technically easier than most other “8000’ers,” making it a great first 8000-meter peak for climbers with previous high altitude climbing experience.

Our Cho Oyu team will start in Kathmandu, Nepal. We will meet with our Nepal office to complete last-minute paperwork, organize our gear, and enjoy the local customs & culture of Kathmandu before flying to Lhasa, the ancient capital city of Tibet. Lhasa was also once home to the 14th Dalai Lama who fled to India in 1959 due to the Chinese Invasion. From there we drive the spectacular route from Lhasa to the village of Tingri, our final rugged and rural village before moving onto to the Cho Oyu trailhead. Our group will tour many of the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and palaces as we acclimatize and journey to the trailhead where we spend two nights before trekking to ABC, Advanced Base Camp. On this two-day journey we cross rivers and hike over rocky moraine before we arrive at ABC where we spend 4 weeks. Advanced Base Camp (ABC) will be established at 5800 meters (19,024 feet), Camp 1 at 6500 meters, Camp II at 7100 meters (23,288 feet), and Camp III at 7400 meters (24,272 feet). The Mountain Madness Team will climb Cho Oyu via the West Ridge/West Face. After descent, we take an alternative overland route back to Kathmandu via Zhangmu.


Dispatch # 10 - September 27th

We did reach summit on Sept 24th at 12 noon. It was a great day, windless and sunny. Just perfect. You could see every direction for 100s of miles. The climb went well. Rick Gray, Casey Henley and myself summited. Rick summited without oxygen but with Sherpa support. The Sherpa was carrying oxygen just in case he needed it. We left base camp on the 25th and got down on the 26th. Everybody is on their way to Katmandu (except me Mike O'Donnell) because of a strike and also the Maoists are threating to shut down the city again. (I stayed over here to work with the film crew.) Everyone is on their way to Katmandu and there shouldnt be any problems.

Dispatch #9 - September 15th

Michael O’Donnell calling from base camp. We are back down at base camp and resting. We spent the night up at Camp II and will spend several days at Base Camp before summitting. We said our goodbyes to Brad Skidmore, Bob Taylor, and Kay Le Claire who were not feeling well. Casey, Rick, Moira and I will be going for the summit soon if weather permits. Currently the weather is good with clear skies. Our team is excited for the upcoming climb!

Dispatch #8 - September 12th

Things are going well here. We have had great weather up until today. It has been quite hot, but now the weather has changed dramatically to cold and extremely windy. The mountains are being shredded with this weather. The team has been gone to Camps 1, and 2. We are now preparing move to Camp 2, which has already been set up with tents, food and oxygen. For the most part, the team is physically well. Unfortunately Kay Le Claire is having respiratory troubles and is considering going down the mountain. The team is excited to move to camp 2.

Michael

Dispatch #7 - September 7th

Michael O'Donnell called from Advanced Base Camp (ABC). The team is having a great time and is currently resting at ABC after climbing to camp I a couple days ago. They were able to establish camp I on prime real estate before the other teams arrived. The rest days at ABC are spent eating, reading, sleeping and playing cards. At night from ABC lights can be seen on the Nangpa La from Tibetan traders returning home from Nepal. The glaciated pass is a famous trading route between Nepal and Tibet. The group plans to move up to camp I tomorrow and spend the night before climbing higher.

Dispatch #6 - September 5th

This is Mike O’Donnell reporting from Cho Oyu. It is a beautiful day here. Today we made the first carry to Camp I and then came back down. All the team members did well. We have now heard there are 32 teams on the mountain. We are lucky to be one of the first ones and are lucky to have our Camp I so well established. We are way ahead of schedule in relation to most of the teams. Weather has been great with a couple of snows but nothing too dramatic. We will leave tonight and go to Camp I and then make it over the next few days to Camp II. Everybody is health, happy and getting along well. It is shaping up to be a good climb.

Dispatch #5 - September 2nd

This is Michael O’Donnell reporting from Advanced Base Camp at Cho Oyu. Everything is set-up and going well. One thing that did happen today is we sent Elizabeth out today to catch a jeep back to Kathmandu. She was not feeling well and she decided it would be best to leave.

The team did well today, although we had a pretty good challenge. Part of the trail was washed out so we lost the trail and had to go through the moraines to get up to Camp I. Everyone muscled through and we are all here and settled. The food and water are good and everyone is happy. Everything looks good up here on the mountain. There are only four teams up here. There is a team already fixed at Camp II. Looks like onward might be a lot easier. We’ll call with more news later…

Dispatch #4 - August 30th

Greetings from the new Chinese base camp! We're all here, the gear is here and everything is good. We only have one person whose feeling slightly ill, that's Moira - a little bit of a head cold. Other than that, everything's going great. The weather is pretty clouded over right now - it's a little early right now for it to clear.

The group staff is doing a great job - everyone's happy. I just wanted to report that we're at Chinese base camp, everything is set and ready to go.

Michael

Dispatch #3 - August 29th

Hi guys - This is Michael checking in from Cho Oyu. We just got into Tengri after the big drive from Shigatse and everybody is doing great - health is good. The roads are really rough this year, so it was a rough drive over, but everyone is in great spirits. The group is already forming a lot of great personal friendships and having fun. Gene's doing well. We got to see some really different sights as we came down the road today. There was a whole group of traditionally dressed Tibetans riding these incredible Genghis Khan looking horses. We also got to spend time in some cultural places.

The weather is fantastic. We met Casey Henley no problem. Our Sherpas are up at base camp now setting up camp.

The weather looks good. There's already one team up there and apparently there's going to be 20 teams on the mountain because it's supposedly the 50th anniversary of Cho Oyu. So lots going on and a lot of good folks.

Cho Oyu Dispatch #2 -September 27th

This is Michael O’Donnell reporting from the Tibetan Plateau. We all had a great time in Lhasa. Everybody absolutely loved the tours and especially the Potalla Palace. Kay has decided that she is going to redo her whole house around the design of the Potalla's, and so she went looking for large door knockers. We told her that big door knockers would be hard to come by and probably very expensive, but of course she found just the right pair for cheap! The joke going around is that new knockers cost a lot of money but they can be had for only $30 in Tibet (ha! Ha!).

We are halfway to Shigatse right now. We had to take a whole different road than expected. There is a huge detour because they are working on the road. It’s been a wild ride on this high pass and we got into an absolutely huge traffic jam. We made this best of it though. We walked up the pass while all the trucks were locked up in the traffic jam there, so we got a little acclimatization walk-in up to 17,800 feet which was good.

Things are going great. Everybody is in great spirits and everything is on schedule. We are now four hours outside of Shigatse. Another update coming at you when from Shigatse.

Cho Oyu Dispatch #1- September 25th

This is Michael O’Donnell on the Cho Oyu 2004 Expedition reporting from Lhasa, Tibet. The group arrived in Kathmandu on August 22. We spent two nights in Kathmandu and flew to Lhasa on the 24th. Everyone is doing well and enjoying the sightseeing tour of Lhasa. Today we visited the amazing Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. Assistant Guide, Casey Henley, Phendan Sherpa, Lhama Jungbu Sherpa and our cook, Lakpa left on the 25th and will accompany the gear overland to our Cho Oyu Chinese Base Camp. They were delayed one day in Kathmandu because Brad Skidmore's checked bag didn't arrive with Brad on the 24th. Everything else is on schedule. The team plans on spending one more day in Lhasa before driving to Shigatse on the 27th.