The Russians have finished the South Face of Cho Oyu and are now on the summit ridge. The top is now close, but a major obstacle remains to pass.
The team launched its final summit push a week ago. They reached their third and last camp at 7,300m last Thursday. The following day, they advanced to the end of the ropes they had previously fixed at 7,700m. Yesterday, the team finally reached the summit ridge at 7,960m.
Yet the ridge and the summit are different things.
So near, so far
As the expedition leader Andrey Vassiliev warned before the final push, “We are still very far from the summit. The East Ridge is the most difficult and technical part of the route.”
The crux of the East Ridge is a gigantic crack with two vertical walls at 8,000m. To reach the summit, one must rappel down and then climb up again, both ways.
“This is the main challenge for us, especially considering the strong winds from Tibet,” Vassiliev told ExplorersWeb a week ago. “In the most optimistic scenario, we will need at least three nights on the main ridge.”
The route to the ridge, and circled in red, the crack. Photo: Andrey Vassiliev
The previous Russian expedition, which completed the only previous climb of that ridge, faced serious difficulties. One of the members died on the descent.
The four climbers are not using supplementary oxygen. Their plan was to carry a tent but no sleeping bags, just resting in their down suits with a blanket over them.
