원정 개요

Scmidt & Maloney = Slow & Steady to Cho Oyu

The two members climbing policy is in the team's name: slow and steady. Marty's client, Cliff Maloney, was nearly 72 years old.

They spent three nights in BC, took two days to trek to ABC, spent two nights in ABC, bivouacked at C1 site the night of 8 September, but the next day, the 9th, went back to ABC and rested there on the 10th. On the 11th they climbed to and bivouacked at 6000m, went up on the 12th to C1 for just one night, then down to ABC to rest again.

They began their slow push for the summit on 16 September, when they returned to C1. On the 17th, they went up to bivouac at C1.5 at 6700m, Schmidt's bivvy site just above the icefall. They made C2 at 7000m on the 19th. That day Schmidt climbed to C3's site to deposit C3's tent, etc., a supply of oxygen for Maloney and bivy gear. Both members slept in C2 for the night, then down to C1 on the 20th and rested there on the 21st; Schmidt believed it was wise not to go all the way down to ABC, and this gave Maloney a good rest before going for the top.

On the 22nd they returned to C2, then occupied C3 on the 23rd, and slept there from 4;00 pm to 12:00 midnight, (Nepali time), when they got up for their final climb to the summit. They left the camp at 2:00 am on 24 September and were on the top at 9:30 am with Maloney leading all the way.

Oxygen: Schmidt used none. But it was used by Maloney on their final climb to the top; he climbed on it from C2 to C3, slept on it in C3, used it on their summit day to the top and back to and in C3, which they reached at 4:00 pm. He continued to use it during the descent to C2 on the 25th, that night in C2 and on the 26th, when he died at 10:15 am. Doctors in New York concluded that a blood clot in the brain was the cause of his death.

Schmidt escorted Maloney's body all the way to his home town, New York City. Schmidt left BC on 28 September; a large landslide blocked the road to Zhangmu and held up other team's departures, but the Chinese army helped Schmidt over the debris and carried the body with him (but not their baggage, which had to be left behind at BC). Schmidt reached Kathmandu on the 29th and left for New York with the body the next day.

Maloney was the husband of a Democratic member of the U.S House of Representatives from New York City; Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton was a US senator from New York State before she became Secretary of State in 2008. Her request for speedy repatriation of Maloney's body presumably helped to get it home from Tibet-China through Nepal quickly.