October 10, 2009
One final wrap-up for all you Cho Oyu fans… below is a summary written by IMG Cho Oyu Guide Greg Vernovage
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What an expedition! This year’s team was quite diverse which made for a great time at camp. We had all corners of the glove covered including: Poland, Singapore, Germany, Greece, Nepal, Tibet, and the United States, truly international. I am proud of the group for having the ability to come together as a team; it was quite easy for them.
We’ve all left Kathmandu for our respective cities with lots of stories to tell. What a climb – from the first day in Kathmandu to our arrival at Base Camp and on up to the different camps – we worked hard but had fun too. Summit day was amazing, we arrived on the summit just before dawn which made for a chili summit photo but it didn’t matter we were on top of an 8000m peak and the world’s 6th tallest mountain!
Congratulations to this year’s team:
From Poland, Renata, who is as strong a climber as I have had the honor to watch on the mountain. She was patient and had a great climb.
Rafal, also from Poland, excelled on Summit day along with his Sherpa, Da Nuru. Rumor is out that they may have ran across the summit plateau!
Mayk from Germany, who I have now had the pleasure of climbing 3 mountains with – reaching the summit of all three – and great weather on each nonetheless! Denali, Vinson and now Cho Oyu!
Sandhosh, from Singapore. Where to start here, congratulations on your 1st 8,000-meter peak. Well done sir!
Jim, USA. Congratulations! You did it! Jim, like all of us, had good days and challenging days and the result was that he overcame everything and was a GREAT teammate in the process. A big thank you for being such a great teammate and lugging those cameras around.
Tasia, Greece. The FIRST GREEK WOMAN to summit an 8,000-meter peak. Congratulations to Tasia and the Athenian Alpine Club. I cannot say enough about how positive Tasia was throughout the entire trip. She earned every step of that 8,201 meter Mountain.
Congratulations to the entire team, I had a great time and the weather held on and gave us a perfect window. Thanks to everyone who helped make that night and morning such a success.
We worked hard but our summits would not be possible without our Sherpa and Tibetan climbing staff! Having this strength by my side everyday gave me added confidence which I appreciate!
Newang and Kato were our Tibetan Climbers; they did a fine job helping with the high camps.
Kaji and Rinzing, The best cooks you could ever find. Thank you for keeping us going at ABC!
Ang Pasang - Thank you for coordinating all the logistics from the ground! Couldn’t have done it without you.
Mingma Dorjee, No load too heavy and never without a smile. One of the best Sherpa around!
Mingma Tenjing, 5 Everest Summits & 5 Cho Oyu summits. Strong and fast. Together with Da Nuru, they carried a load from ABC to Camp 3 and returned in under 7:30 hours. THAT is moving.
Da Nuru Sherpa, 11 Everest Summits-10 Cho Oyu Summits. The strongest climber and Sherpa I have had the honor of climbing with. His achievements are too great to list.
To all of the Cho Oyu Summitters, CONGRATULATIONS!!
Greg
