Cho Oyu, 8201m, is the 6th Highest Mountain in the World, it lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between China and Nepal. Cho Oyu means “Turquoise Goddess” in Tibetan.
The team will be attempting the summit from the North West Ridge, the perfect stepping stone before an attempt on Mt Everest, the highest mountain in the world (summited by the finding life team in 2010).
The team will consist of Elia Saikaly (CAN-LBN) and Kheiry Sammakieh (GBR-LBN), each with enough previous high-altitude and general mountaineering experience to climb this 8,000-metre mountain. This will ensure that team members are suitably prepared, physically and mentally, are technically competent, are reasonably self-sufficient and capable of moving between camps unsupervised, if necessary. It will also enable those team members, who have an interest, to share in the decision-making that affects the team.
They will be in constant radio contact with Jeremie Stall-Paquet of Canada, their basecamp manager, who will be updating them on weather movement and paterns regularly, and keeping a close tab on logistics throughout the expedition.
Lastly and most importantly they will be backed up and supported by 3 of the strongest sherpas in the Himalayas: Dawa Tenzing Sherpa, Namgel Sherpa, Ang Pemba Sherpa (Pema) and Pasang Sherpa. Without their involvement, there would be no expedition. Our Sherpas have many ascents of 8,000 metre peaks to their credit, including Cho Oyu and Everest, among others.
The crux of the climb (the hardest part) will be a steep 50m ice wall at over 6,600m. Although straightforward, this is the hardest climbing on the route as it involves a huge effort to climb steep ice at such an altitude.
This will be an Oxygen assisted climb which has proven to increase chances of success in all previous expeditions at the 8000m level.
2790 summits have been made of Cho Oyu since 1954 and 44 people have died trying, main cause being either Avalanche or Falls into crevaces.
32 recorded ascents by Canada and 1 recorded ascent by Lebanon in 2003.
