원정 개요

Independent on Cho Oyu: Ms Adele Pennington - 28 March 2008

Ms. Pennington first climbed Xixabangma, then on 2 October left Xixabangma and drove to Cho Oyu. Arrived at ABC on 3 October. On 4 October she reached C1, where she met the Jagged Globe/Summit Nepal Trekking team (on their permit). She asked Sherpas to leave a tent for her at each camp.

She returned to ABC on 5 Oct. She paid Sherpas with Alex Abramov (Russian) "lots of money" to carry one oxygen bottle (had left other one at C3).

She began her summit push on 7 October, when she returned to C1. On the 8th she climbed to C2 in four hours. On the 9th she reached C3, and on the 10th she went for the summit.

She left C3 at about 1:30 am (Chinese time), perhaps an hour after Abramov's team had started up. She had "a little epic when my head torch bulb blew, but managed to put a new one in." She reached the top at about 6:00 am, half an hour or one hour after Abramov's team had gotten there [6:45 am], she thinks. When it was pointed out to her that her times did not jibe with Abramov's times, she said she doesn't pay much attention to the time; these are the best she can do.

She met a Sherpa carrying an oxygen bottle for her as he was on his way down with the Abramov party. She carried on to the summit, saw Everest and Lhotse clearly and took some pictures of her teddy bear.

In her descent, she caught up with the Abramov team. She dug out the tent at C3, carried her gear down to C2, collected more equipment, and arrived at C1 at 4:30 pm "very tired. Drank a can of beer and went to sleep." On the 11th, she hired two Tibetans to carry her equipment to ABC, where she "enjoyed the hospitality of the Russians."

On the 12th, she hired the same Tibetans to accompany her to the road-head at BC. It "seemed like an eternity" getting there. From BC she "got transport and drove to the border."

"A great adventure."

She had started using oxygen when she left C3 for the summit. She used it to the top and then in her descent from the summit used it intermittently back to C3, where she stopped using it. (She used it only intermittently because she had never used it before and she didn't like it -- it was uncomfortable and obscured her view.)