Too cold, too tired, too dangerous: The Russian team was unable to cross the huge gap on the tricky East Ridge that separated them from the summit of Cho Oyu. In the end, after weeks of work, they decided to turn around.
Slowly and painfully, the four-member Russian team had climbed the highly difficult south face to the summit ridge. They advanced on its sharp edge until a huge crack — called The Dip, in some translations — blocked their way.
The climbers studied how to rappel down to the bottom of the crack and then climb to the other side, Russianclimb reported. They considered carrying their tent and pitching it on the other side, just three hours from the summit. However, the relentless snowfall that day finally forced them to stay put. Today was decision day, and they opted to go down.
The most significant sections on the Russian route up Cho Oyu, including (in Russian) the gap on the rocky part of the summit ridge. Topo posted on Mountain.ru
No energy left
“We couldn’t make it to the other side of the gap, there’s no time left, nor energy to secure the passing,” expedition leader Andrey Vassiliev told Mountain.ru. “Today, we’re removing the gear from the route. Tomorrow, we head down.”
This is the second year in a row that the Russian team has attempted to climb Cho Oyu from its Nepalese side. Last year, they tried the then-unclimbed SSW Ridge. Like this year, they came very close to the goal but ran out of time. Earlier this year, Gelje Sherpa led the first ascent of the SSW Ridge.
This year, Vassiliev and his team tried a different route up the face to the final ridge east of the summit. Another Russian expedition had climbed it once, in 1991, with great difficulty and one fatality.
