Jan Ros, a member of a Czech alpine-style expedition to Cholatse, died in an apparent fall last Wednesday.
The team included Piolet d’Or winners Radoslav Groh and Zdenek Hak, Czech TV confirmed. They had previously acclimatized on Lobuche and started up Cholatse in the middle of last week, as Ros himself confirmed on social media.
In his last post, Ros wrote they were on their way up and noted that Groh and Hak were marking the most difficult sections for the following day. On that following day, the accident reportedly took place.
“The cause of death is probably a slip/fall,” TV Nova reported but noted that there is an ongoing investigation to clear up the facts.
Cholatse. Photo: Namas Adventure
Cholatse is a demanding 6,440m peak, located between the Khumbu and Gokyo valleys. Despite its easy access, it remained closed to expeditions and unclimbed until 1982. That year, Vern Clevenger, John Roskelley, Galen Rowell, and Bill O’Connor summited via the South West Ridge.
They described the experience as some 20 pitches of difficult ice climbing, according to Summitpost. Several teams have climbed the peak since then and opened a number of routes, none of them easy.
