원정 개요

BC at 5100m near Gokyo, ABC 3 hours from Gokyo
C1 at same camp sites as Poles.

First tried to climb via S Face of Ngojumba and put a C1 at 6100m on 23 April and reached 6400m on 24th but then encountered chaos of seracs and crevasses which was very dangerous and decided to abandon this route (which French on Gyachung Kang actually did follow in lower part of their climb), requested change of route permit from HMG (got no answer) and went to Pole's route as above. Short direct route, technically more difficult than Tichy route but could be done by strong team without the 700m fixed rope put in by Poles. Very safe route without objective dangers and very beautiful ice ridges. On upper part was no snow this spring.

6 members left before climb entirely finished, but no reason for them to stay since summit teams were not supported from BC.

E Ridge appears equally difficult as Lhotse Shar. Lhotse traverse plus dangerous lower part of climb.

Frush claims first American ascent on May 11. Claims that Smith and Schleypen of W German/USA expedition did not reach true summit on May 9 (they only reached summit plateau).


Schleypen - 3 Nov 95

Confident he reached Cho Oyu's summit in 1986. Went to what surely was highest point of plateau (where there was pole with cloth, flags, as per Smith's photo), which took 30-45 minutes to reach from edge of plateau first reached - did not see Chinese metal flag (Frush's photo).


Habeler and Ruedi arrived BC on 21 April and 3 days later expedition decided 2000m fixed rope required for Ngojumba East Ridge to Cho Oyu plus 3 months time, so idea of trying this route abandoned and went to new route via 2 passes of 5700m to depot near Polish and US BC and did two ferries of loads (Habeler and Ruedi were first members to explore for new route). As for 1st time at depot on 28 Apr. 29 Apr went over Nangpa La and slept at Tichy camp near US. 2 May arrived at Poles ABC. 3 May Habeler and Ruedi left ABC to go as high as possible arriving at Poles C4 but a actually went to Poles C5 (Habeler and Ruedi C1) at 4:00 pm. 4 May stormy and very cold so all day in tent. 5 May left C1 7:30 am and on top 11:00 am. Stayed 1/2 hour in warm weather and very cloudy to south. Saw and photographed Chinese pole on summit "with lady on it" (hard to see pole on large summit plateau). Back in C1 1:00 pm, had tea and went on down. Nasty weather in which had trouble finding ridge to descend but continued to ABC at 7:00 pm.


Letter from Stefan Woerner to Miss Hawley, July 17,1986

What concerns Jan Smith's climb of Cho Oyu in my team last spring, I think there should be no doubt that he has been at the very top. Jan has sent me slides that can be only be taken from the top. One slide that I have not seen he has already sent to Jim Frush, showing the Chinese flag on the top. Please also receive a copy of the letter Jan Smith sent to Jim Frush in this matter.


Letter to Jim Frush from Jan Smith, June 21 1986

I reached the summit of Cho Oyu about midday on May 9th. But you'll have to take my word for it; I was on the summit alone. I'm not plugging Rolexes, so I didn't take any effort to photograph myself. I did photograph the summit marker and the view. Several transparencies are enclosed. One taken from the southern rim of the summit looks down on the area of our base-camp on the western edge of the Lungsampa Glacier. The blue silk scarf with white Chinese characters that you can see hanging from the summit marker is mine; I met my friend Rudiger Schleypen at the northern edge of the summit plateau; he continued on to the summit and I went on down to our camp where we spent the night. If it's important enough you should talk to Rudiger.

Slides:
Cho Oyu summit stake, Jan's pack and poles
Sagarmatha, Lhotse view @105mm
View south-southeast down Ngojumba Glacier