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A climber on oxygen high on Cho Oyu, frost on the regulator hose and the snow slope reflected in their goggles

Cho Oyu

Spend the one thing you cannot replace

Country
Nepal / TibetNepal–Tibet border, Mahalangur Himal
Duration
40–45 daysSeason Six
Grade
Extreme 5AGet High scale
Max altitude
8,188 m26,864 ft
Daily activity
Approx 6–10 hours, 14 on summit day
Season
Sep–Oct, Apr–May
Skill required
7,000 m experience, oxygen systems
Months on the plan
Three monthsof 24 planned

Step 11Cho Oyu8,188 m / 26,864 ft

Altitude profile: 12 steps, 1,400 m to 8,849 m at Mount EverestA line chart of every step in order. Step 1, 12 Days of Silence, is the lowest at 1,400 m / 4,593 ft, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Every step is higher than the one before it, up to step 12, Mount Everest, 8,849 m / 29,032 ft. Everything above 8,000 m is the death zone, marked in red: step 11, Cho Oyu; step 12, Mount Everest. Each point is a link to that step. You are on step 11, Cho Oyu, 8,188 m / 26,864 ft.

Above eight thousand metres you do not acclimatise. You spend. And for once you are spending something that cannot be topped up by anyone.

What you are walking into

Cho Oyu is broad, high and comparatively forgiving — a long snow ramp with one genuine obstacle, the rock band around 7,000 m — which is exactly why it is the standard rehearsal for Everest. The altitude is entirely real; the technical difficulty is manageable.

It is also where you learn how your particular body handles bottled oxygen, whether you can sleep at 7,400 m, and what your judgement is actually worth on a third of the air you were built for.

What it takes out of you

There is no step in any programme about being cured, because there is no such step. There is only the practice, continued, at rising cost — and you have finally reached the altitude where that stops being a slogan.

Everything you take up there comes out of a reserve that does not refill while you are on the mountain. You have spent a decade drawing down a different reserve for nothing at all. This time you get something back, and you get to choose when to stop.

The logistics

Duration
40–45 days
Skill required
7,000 m experience, oxygen systems
Season
Sep–Oct, Apr–May

The climb profile

Left, elevation only: no horizontal axis, so its width means nothing. Right, air: bar length is the one thing here that does.

Climb profile: Advanced Base Camp at 5,650 m to Summit at 8,188 m, 2,538 metres of verticalA vertical elevation chart with no horizontal axis. The scale runs from 5,000 m at the foot to 9,000 m at the top. Advanced Base Camp is marked at 5,650 m and Summit at 8,188 m, a difference of 2,538 metres. Between them, by elevation: Camp 1 at 6,400 m. Each is drawn as a rule straight across the chart, because where it sits along the route is not sourced. The elevation part of the chart has no horizontal axis because the horizontal distance from Advanced Base Camp to Summit is not published by any source we could find. Its width carries no meaning. Cumulative ascent over the route is not sourced and is not shown. To the right, a bar hangs off each of those elevations and its length is that altitude's share of the air at sea level, which a dashed bar across the full track marks as 100%: Advanced Base Camp 51%; Camp 1 46%; Summit 36%. The bars shorten as the elevation rises. Bars above 8,000 m, the the death zone, are tinted.

Tinted: above 8,000 m, the death zone.

Base camp
Advanced Base Camp, 5,650 msource
Summit
Summit, 8,188 msource
Vertical, base camp to summit
2,538 mthe difference of the two elevations above, nothing more
Horizontal distance
Not yet sourcedNo operator route description, alpine club record or mountaineering reference we could find states it for this route. It is not estimated here.
Cumulative ascent
Not yet sourcedThe up-and-down of the whole route, which is more than the vertical above. Nobody publishes it for any of the twelve.

Camps, by elevation: Camp 1 6,400 m source. Where each one sits along the route is not sourced, so each is drawn as a rule across the chart rather than placed on it.

8,188 m comes from the 1996 Nepal Survey Department and Finnish Meteorological Institute measurement. The 8,201 m figure many operators still print is a superseded 1984 estimate, not a competing survey. The road-head camp below ABC is quoted at both 4,800 m and 4,900 m and is not plotted. Camps 2 and 3 are quoted at 7,000/7,100 m and 7,400/7,500 m, so they are not listed.

The highest camp is Camp 1, 6,400 m, where the air is 46% of what it is at sea level. The tent was carried up there. The air was not.

The part we will not lie about

The death zone is not a figure of speech and rescue above 8,000 m is largely theoretical. People die on Cho Oyu every few seasons, including strong, experienced, extremely well-supported ones. No budget alters this in any way.

The frost-encrusted top edge of an oxygen mask at the bottom of the frame, two rope strands running up a pale snow slope beyond.
Above eight thousand. A third of the air you were built for.

Who you do it with

Above eight thousand for the first time. The body starts dying at this height and nothing anybody says alters that arithmetic. What is left is whether you trust the man who tells you to turn around.

What the word means, and where it came from

$2,400,000 at the plan's pace — $100,000 a month, charged monthly, for as long as it takes. All twelve steps. One client at a time.

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A white helicopter alone on a vast flat snow plateau beneath a broad whaleback snow dome trailing wind-blown snow.
A snow plateau below a whaleback dome, with the crest smoking.
The broad summit dome of Cho Oyu with spindrift streaming off the crest, empty of people
High-altitude boots with crampons still strapped on, standing in the snow at the door of a tent at high camp

All twelve steps

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