Cho Oyu in Winter, 1993. An expedition of six Spaniards, a Swiss woman and an Argentine was led by Manuel González. They made two successful summit climbs from Camp IV on the normal route. They made Base Camp on January 13, 1993 very low, at only 5070 meters, because of much snow. Both Base Camp and Camp I were on the Nepalese side of the border. On January 26, they placed Camp II at the base of the mountain in Tibet. Camp IV was established at 7400 meters on February 7. On February 8, 1993, leader González, Manuel Morales, Manuel Salazar and Fernando Guerra climbed to the top. On the 10th, Spaniard Luis Arbues, Argentine Miguel Angel Sánchez and Swiss Marianne Chapuisat also completed the ascent. They had no climbing Sherpas and used no bottled oxygen. Sánchez was the first Argentine to climb Cho Oyu and the first Latin American to climb an 8000er in winter. Mlle Chapuisat was the first woman of any nationality to climb an 8000er in winter.

Elizabeth Hawley