Hem About Cho Oyu

About Cho Oyu

Cho Oyu is located on the border between Tibet and Nepal 20-30 kms west of Everest. It is the sixth highest mountain in the world where it stands 8 201 meters tall. Cho Oyu was first climbed in October 1954 by Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama, Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler. The name in Tibetan means ”Turquoise Goddess”.

Sometimes you hear that Cho Oyu is an easy 8,000-meter mountain. Of course, there are no easy 8,000-meter mountains – just to make that clear 🙂 However, Cho Oyu is, in comparison with the other 8000ers, less technical and has a more agreeable death rate history than the others.

Cho Oyu is also named/called Mount Zhuoaoyou or Mount Qowowuyag. In Tibetan ཇོ་བོ་དབུ་ཡ, in Nepalese चोयु, in Chinese 卓奧友山.

8 000ers Hight Ascents Deaths Death Rate
Annapurna I 8 091 191 67 35,08 %
K2 8 611 306 81 26,47 %
Nanga Parbat 8 126 335 68 20,30 %
Dhaulagri I 8 167 448 69 15,40 %
Kangchenjunga 8 586 284 43 15,14 %
Makalu 8 485 377 39 10,34 %
Manaslu 8 163 672 67 9,97 %
Gasherbrum I 8 080 334 29 8,68 %
Shishapangma 8 027 302 25 8,28 %
Broad Peak 8 051 404 21 5,20 %
Everest 8 848 6 208 240 3,87 %
Lhotse 8 516 525 14 2,67 %
Gasherbrum II 8 034 930 21 2,26 %
Cho Oyu 8 201 3 171 49 1,55 %

 
Source: Himalayan Database, 8000ers.com

Note, you will find several (different) data on the number of successful ascents and the number of fatalities, but the above table is a good indication of what ”reality” looks like.

The closest airports to Cho Oyu are Kathmandu and Lhasa. Most people fly to Kathmandu and then you will have about one week by jeep to reach the base camp in Tibet. To climb Cho Oyu from Nepal is doable but rare.

The base camp is located at about 5,000 meters and ABC at 5,700.

From the Summit of Cho Oyu you will see Everest and other peaks from the Khumbu region like Nuptse and Ama Dablam.

Read more about Cho Oyu at Wikipedia and at www.summitpost.org

Below – a virtual climb of Cho Oyu.

Below – a human climb of Cho Oyu.

And for those of you who really want to identify with both the hardship and the unfathomable beauty of mountaineering, I highly recommend watching the below (long) cut. Skip tonight’s TV soap and watch this instead 🙂