원정 개요

Left C3 for top on 22 Sept at 11:45 pm NST and reached summit plateau at 5:45 am; were first to reach plateau in light snowfall and light wind and took 3-1/2 hours through deep snow drifts up to waist deep snow to get to top with Tibetans in lead till last one hour, when Crampton led. Had been heavier snowfall lower on mountain and found more deep snow. Reached C3 at 11:45 am and C2 at 2:45 pm. Down to C1 on 24th at 3:00 pm and stopped there. Skirucha very tired. On 24th huge storm started at 8:15 pm and continued till 9:00 am on 25th badly damaged both tents. Never seen such a storm, but managed to get to ABC on 26th by noon.

Oxygen: both members used oxygen from C3 to top to C3; Crampton and Tibetans none.

At summit couldn't see Everest because it was covered in clouds, but Crampton having been there before and having GPS was sure they were there.

Tibetans summiters:
Thumba (Dompa, Dunba), 1/10/81 Shigatse, Cho Oyu X3, Everest X1
Gonga Da, Cho Oyu 2/10/06 (Brice exped)


Mountain Madness Cho Oyu Expedition

Questions raised about expedition's success and Crampton's reply

Miss Zhenahen Jane Lee, leader of Singaporean women's expedition said by telephone on 5 Oct 2007: Crampton's team stopped 20 minutes before the true summit. Her team reached same point later and her experienced Sherpas said it was not the summit; she is very sure Crampton's party did not succeed. Her party was just behind Crampton where there were prayer flags. (Singaporeans summit photo shows them standing in calf-deep snow -- Crampton on 2 Oct had spoken of knee and waist-deep snow.)

Mike Hamill, leader of IMG (American) expedition, said on 5 Oct: he saw Crampton's party sitting for at least 20 minutes on edge of plateau and wondered whether he really summited. Crampton in a lower camp "worked very hard to convince me he had summited": his insistence raised doubts in Hamill's mind.

Russell Brice, Himex team, on 6 Oct had not heard about waist-deep snow on the plateau and doubted it, but he didn't know whether the Crampton party summited.

Crampton and his client Brad Crawford on 8 Oct were emphatic that they had summited. "If we had gone farther on, we would have fallen off," said Crampton. From the edge of the summit plateau, they went to the right a bit and then straight ahead across the plateau. They were two hours ahead of the Singaporeans and broke trail for them. Crampton knows where the summit is having been there in 2006 and their Tibetans, Thumba and Gong Da, also had been there before, Thumba three times and Gong Da once; they knew it well.