August 28, 2011
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- Shishapangma from Tsong La pass
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- Cho Oyu from Base Camp
IMG Leaders Craig John, Mike Hamill, and Ang Jangbu report that after two nights in Tingri (14000+ feet) and a good day of acclimatization hiking yesterday to over 15000 feet, the two IMG teams have now officially split and headed for their Base Camps!
For Mike Hamill and the Shishapangma climbers, they backtracked a bit towards Nyalam before splitting off the Lhasa-Kathmandu road to drive further west with their jeeps and truck. For the Cho Oyu climbers, they drove due north from Tingri for less than an hour to their Base Camp site. Both the Base Camps are at about 15000 feet.  Ang Jangbu reports that the Cho Oyu team has 30 yaks (and yak drivers) arriving to BC tomorrow, and that the next day they will all head for ABC with 3-4 sherpas to start working on that camp. For the Cho Oyu team members, their plan is to take three nights at BC (acclimatization hiking each day) before moving up to IC (Interim Camp) on the 31st and to ABC on September 1st. The Shishapangma team is on a similar schedule.
For both the Cho Oyu and Shishapangma teams, their ABCÂ camps are well over 18000 feet, so it is important to be well acclimatized before moving up there.
So far so good!
Eric Simonson