Cho Oyu in Winter. Our expedition had six members: Americans Peter Athens and Craig Ballinger, Czechoslovakians Jaromír Stejskal and Dušan Becík and Canadians Alan Burgess and me as leader. We made what is probably the first alpine-style winter ascent of an 8000er. Due to early snowfall, we had to establish Base Camp two days from the foot of Cho Oyu’s west face. We set out from Advance Base at 5600 meters on December 1. Stejskal, Becík, Burgess and I bivouacked once on the glacier and three times on the face. Stejskal and Becík climbed from 7400 meters on December 5 and reached the summit in six hours in very cold, windy weather. Burgess and I reached the same bivouac on December 5 but because of poor acclimatization we descended the next day. I had frostbitten fingers.

Roger Marshall, Canada