Cho Oyu Ascent and Paraglider Descent. After seven Sherpas joined us on August 25, we settled Base Camp that same day at the tongue of the Gyabrag Glacier at 4950 meters. We were Kazuyuki Takahashi, Akio Hayakawa, Kenji Kondo, Tomoji Kato, co-leaders Yoshitomi Ohkura and I, and a Asahi Newspaper and Television team consisting of Junichiro Ohkei, Houei Ohtani, Taijiro Maeda and Shinji Kobayashi. On September 5, Camp I was placed at 6350 meters on the north-northwest side of Cho Oyu. In the following bad weather, we carried loads to Camp I. On the 15th, Camp II was established at 7200 meters. The route to there went around the right end of the icefall. Camp III was put at the bottom of the rock band at 7700 meters on September 18. On September 20, after a 4½-hour climb from Camp III, Hayakawa and Kondo reached the summit without supplementary oxygen. They had climbed to the southern side of the vast summit snowfield in knee-deep snow. Suddenly Everest and Lhotse appeared through a rift in the dense fog. On September 21, Ohkura, K. Takahashi, Kato,Ohtani and Sherpas Nima Dorje and Ang Dawa reached the top. (They were accompanied by Frenchman Tierry Renard, who apparently was not authorized to make the climb—Editor.) Takahashi descended in ten minutes from the summit some 2600 vertical meters to Base Camp by paraglider. It took him five tries to take off. This is the record for the highest take-off. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that he had to run some distance on the flat mountain top to be able to take off. On September 22, Kobayashi, Sherpas Lhakpa Tenzing, Ang Phurba and Mingma Tenzing and I gained the summit. We withdrew from Base Camp on September 26 and were in Lhasa on the 29th.

Mrs. Michiko Takahashi, Kamoshika Alpine Club, Japan