Cho Oyu Attempt. A team of eight Britons, an American and a New Zealander, led by Steven Berry, attempted to climb Cho Oyu by ascending the right side of the south face to the east ridge. They established four camps on the face, the highest at 23,000 feet. There were three bivouacs on the summit attempt. Englishman Matthew Priestman and American Jeffrey Jackson, the team’s strongest climbers, got onto the east ridge at 25,425 feet on May 16. The next day they climbed along the ridge, confident that they were on the way to the summit when, halfway or more along the ridge, they encountered an impassable gully system, stretching down into Tibet. Priestman tried to solo around it on very steep, loose rock, but it was impossible. He got frostbite that caused him to lose a bit of a toe. The expedition was given up.

Michael J. Cheney, Himalayan Club, and Elizabeth Hawley