Cho Oyu is located on the border between Tibet and Nepal 20-30 kms west of Everest. It is the sixth highest mountain in the world where it stands 8 201 meters tall. Cho Oyu was first climbed in October 1954 by Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama, Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler. The name in Tibetan means ”Turquoise Goddess”.
Sometimes you hear that Cho Oyu is an easy 8,000-meter mountain. Of course, there are no easy 8,000-meter mountains – just to make that clear 🙂 However, Cho Oyu is, in comparison with the other 8000ers, less technical and has a more agreeable death rate history than the others.
Cho Oyu is also named/called Mount Zhuoaoyou or Mount Qowowuyag. In Tibetan ཇོ་བོ་དབུ་ཡ, in Nepalese चोयु, in Chinese 卓奧友山.
| 8 000ers | Hight | Ascents | Deaths | Death Rate |
| Annapurna I | 8 091 | 191 | 67 | 35,08 % |
| K2 | 8 611 | 306 | 81 | 26,47 % |
| Nanga Parbat | 8 126 | 335 | 68 | 20,30 % |
| Dhaulagri I | 8 167 | 448 | 69 | 15,40 % |
| Kangchenjunga | 8 586 | 284 | 43 | 15,14 % |
| Makalu | 8 485 | 377 | 39 | 10,34 % |
| Manaslu | 8 163 | 672 | 67 | 9,97 % |
| Gasherbrum I | 8 080 | 334 | 29 | 8,68 % |
| Shishapangma | 8 027 | 302 | 25 | 8,28 % |
| Broad Peak | 8 051 | 404 | 21 | 5,20 % |
| Everest | 8 848 | 6 208 | 240 | 3,87 % |
| Lhotse | 8 516 | 525 | 14 | 2,67 % |
| Gasherbrum II | 8 034 | 930 | 21 | 2,26 % |
| Cho Oyu | 8 201 | 3 171 | 49 | 1,55 % |
Source: Himalayan Database, 8000ers.com
Note, you will find several (different) data on the number of successful ascents and the number of fatalities, but the above table is a good indication of what ”reality” looks like.
The closest airports to Cho Oyu are Kathmandu and Lhasa. Most people fly to Kathmandu and then you will have about one week by jeep to reach the base camp in Tibet. To climb Cho Oyu from Nepal is doable but rare.
The base camp is located at about 5,000 meters and ABC at 5,700.
From the Summit of Cho Oyu you will see Everest and other peaks from the Khumbu region like Nuptse and Ama Dablam.
Read more about Cho Oyu at Wikipedia and at www.summitpost.org
Below – a virtual climb of Cho Oyu.
Below – a human climb of Cho Oyu.
And for those of you who really want to identify with both the hardship and the unfathomable beauty of mountaineering, I highly recommend watching the below (long) cut. Skip tonight’s TV soap and watch this instead 🙂
