Cho Oyu, Tichy Route, Self-Supported Women ’s Ascent. We were a team of American women friends (Supy Bullard, leader, and Georgie Stanley, co-leader; Caroline Byrd, Kathryn Hess, Cara Liberatore, Liane Owen) with a goal to be the first American women’s team to climb an 8000-meter peak without supplemental oxygen or Sherpa support. We left Kathmandu on April 1. Since we were “trucking” to Base Camp at 16,600 feet, we wanted to start acclimatizing on the approach. To this end, we spent two nights in Nyalam and two nights in Tingri. After spending three days at “Chinese” BC, we moved up to Advanced Base Camp at 18,600 feet and went to work on the mountain. The only glitch in our plans came early. A Norwegian team trying (later successfully) to climb Cho Oyu and Shishapangma in the same season had arrived early to Cho Oyu and their Sherpas had fixed the mountain. We thought it contrived to ignore these lines and fix our own set, so we used them, thereby compromising our goal of self-sufficiency.

We established Camp I at 21,000 feet, CII at 23,000 feet on April 20 and CIII at 24,500 feet. We climbed in two teams of three and on May 4, Supy, Kathryn and I reached the summit on a calm, clear day. On May 6, Cara, Caroline and Liane headed up but were turned back on their way to CIII by the first storm of the monsoon. We departed ABC on May 13. Thanks to the A AC and our friends and family for supporting our endeavor!

Georgie Stanley, unaffiliated