Cho Oyu ( Nepali: चोयु; ; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. Cho Oyu means " Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the '' Khumbu'' sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

. The mountain stands on the China–Nepal border, between the

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

and

Koshi Province Koshi Province () is an autonomous Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal adopted by the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. It covers an area of , about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its cap ...

. Just a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is Nangpa La (5,716m/18,753 ft), a glaciated pass that serves as the main trading route between the Tibetans and the Khumbu's Sherpas. This pass separates the Khumbu and Rolwaling

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

. Due to its proximity to this pass and the generally moderate slopes of the standard northwest ridge route, Cho Oyu is considered the easiest 8,000 metre peak to climb. It is a popular objective for

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

ly guided parties.

Height

Cho Oyu's height was originally measured at and at the time of the first ascent it was considered the 7th highest mountain on earth, after Dhaulagiri at (

Manaslu Manaslu (; , also known as Kutang) is the List of highest mountains#List, eighth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is in the Mansiri Himal, part of the Nepalese Himalayas, in west-central Nepal. Manaslu means "mountain of the ...

, now , was also estimated lower at ). A 1984 estimate of made it move up to sixth place. New measurements made in 1996 by the Government of Nepal Survey Department and the Finnish Meteorological Institute in preparation for the Nepal Topographic Maps put the height at 8,188 m, one remarkably similar to the used by

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...

in his 1955 book ''High Adventure''.

Climbing history

Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by Eric Shipton and included

, Tom Bourdillon and George Lowe. A foray by Hillary and Lowe was stopped due to technical difficulties and avalanche danger at an ice cliff above and a report of Chinese troops a short distance across the border influenced Shipton to retreat from the mountain rather than continue to attempt to summit. The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954, via the north-west ridge by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n expedition. Cho Oyu was the fifth

eight-thousander The eight-thousanders are the 14 mountains recognized by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) as being more than in height above sea level, and sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no precise defin ...

to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950,

in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 and K2 in July 1954. Until the ascent of

Reinhold Messner Reinhold Andreas Messner (; born 17 September 1944) is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent o ...

and Peter Habeler in 1978, this was the highest peak climbed without supplemental oxygen. Chooyu

Cho Oyu is considered the easiest

, with the lowest death-summit ratio (th of Annapurna's). It is the second most climbed

after Everest (whose height makes it the most popular), and has over four times the ascents of the third most popular

, Gasherbrum II. It is marketed as a "trekking peak", achievable for climbers with high fitness, but low mountaineering experience. It has a broadly flat summit plateau with no

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

(the traditional prayer flags on Cho Oyu's summit plateau do not mark the "technical" summit), which can be a source of confusion, and debate, amongst climbers (see Elizabeth Hawley).

View

Timeline

*1952 First reconnaissance of north-west face by

and party. *1954 First ascent by Austrians Joseph Jöchler and Herbert Tichy, and Pasang Dawa Lama (Nepal) *1958 Second ascent of the peak, by an

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n expedition. Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama reaches the peak for the second time. First death on Cho Oyu. *1959 Four members are killed in an avalanche during a failed international women's expedition. *1964 A controversial third ascent by a German expedition as there is no proof of reaching the summit. Two mountaineers die of exhaustion in camp 4 at . *1978 Edi Koblmüller and Alois Furtner of

summit via the extremely difficult southeast face. *1983

succeeds on his fourth attempt, with Hans Kammerlander and Michael Dacher. *1984 Věra Komárková (USA) and Dina Štěrbová (Czechoslovakia) become the first women to climb Cho Oyu. Štěrbová is also the first woman from Czechoslovakia to climb an 8,000er. *1985 On February 12,

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski make the first winter ascent via a new route on the southeast face. It is the only winter ascent on an

made on a new route and the first winter ascent without additional oxygen support. The ascent was repeated three days later by Andrzej Heinrich and

Jerzy Kukuczka Józef Jerzy Kukuczka (; 24 March 1948 – 24 October 1989) was a Polish mountaineer, regarded as one of the greatest high-altitude climbers in history. In 1987, he became the second man (after Reinhold Messner) to climb all 14 eight-thousand ...

, with Kukuczka setting an additional record for climbing two eight-thousanders during the same winter, as he had earlier climbed Dhaulagiri. *1988 On November 2, a Slovenian expedition consisting of Iztok Tomazin, Roman Robas, Blaž Jereb, Rado Nadvešnik, Marko Prezelj and Jože Rozman reach the summit via the never before climbed north face. *1994 On May 13 Carlos Carsolio sets a world record speed ascent from base camp to summit, ascending in 18 hours and 45 minutes. *1994 First solo ascent via the South West face by Yasushi Yamanoi. *2000 Russian-Finnish expedition of nine climbers summitted the top, but two of them disappeared in the attempt and were presumed dead. *2004 Second summit by a double amputee ( Mark Inglis) *2007 Second Indian ascent. Expedition led by Abhilekh Singh Virdi. *2009 Clifton Maloney, husband of US Representative Carolyn Maloney and at that time the oldest American to summit an

, died at age 71 after summiting on 25 September. His final words were "I’m the happiest man in the world. I’ve just summited a beautiful mountain." *2011 Dutch climber Ronald Naar dies after becoming unwell at .

Notes

References

Sources

* *Herbert Tichy, ''Cho Oyu - Gnade der Götter'', (Vienna: Ullstein 1955)

External links

Cho Oyu page on Summitpost.org

*
Ascents and fatalities statistics

Cho Oyu from Kyrgyzstan

{{Authority control Eight-thousanders of the Himalayas Mountains of Tibet China–Nepal border International mountains of Asia Mountains of Koshi Province