Many climbers have a question, how hard is it to climb Mount Cho Oyu? How easy or how difficult to climb any eight thousand meters peak can only be said through comparative presentations. It also depends on the climber’s age, physical fitness, previous climbing experiences, weather, and climbing season. Mount Cho-Oyu, one of the 14th, 8000m mountains in the world is considered to be an easy 8000m expedition and safe to climb, where rates of success are likely high. Cho-Oyu Advance Base Camp is located at a height of 5,700 m/18,700ft which is the second-highest the advance base camp of all 8000m expedition after the Everest North route. After a couple of days rest and preparation at the base camp, you set out for the first and second base camp acclimatization.
After the first two hours of trekking steep path of 15-20 degrees challenge you after the Cho Oyu Base Camp. Climbing the steep path to the right and passing through the path of rock boulders of varied sizes, you reach the base of the Camp-I. From this place of Mt. Cho Oyu a steep climb of one and a half hours – about 350 to 400 m – on some 75 degrees of the slope you reach Camp 1 located at the height of 6,400 m/20,997ft. The climber and Sherpa guide do not need to tie the ropes if there is no fresh snow. But if there is fresh snow for safety reason, our Sherpa Guide fixes some 400meters long rope here. Basically no climbing equipment and tools like ice ax, crampons should be used in these parts if there is no fresh snowfall.
The first C1 is located in a mound-like place between two small basins where about 15 tents can be pitched and typically safe from avalanches or stone-slides.
From camp 1, it takes about four and a half hours to reach camp 2, if you are a climber with average stamina. It depends on your acclimatization, weather condition, physical fitness, and walking pace. After 2 hours uphill in 30-35 degrees slope climb, you reach to sections which pose challenges to some climbers. It is named as hanging point– the 150’ ice wall and popular among adventure climbers as a challenging point among climbers too–by climbing Sherpa guides. Satori Adventures expert Cho Oyu Expedition Sherpa Guides fix static rope about 50-60 m of high quality in this part using both ice screws and snow bar for safety.
It is easy for you to use a dynamic rope for descending but to climb up most of the time it is a fixed static rope. After crossing this Ice Wall you walk about half an hour above the flat slope and next 2 hours Steep part of some 50 degrees to reach Camp 2. Camp 1 and Camp 2 both are pretty 100% safe locations for the camp.
Mount Cho-Oyu Climbing
The Mount Cho-Oyu climbing from Camp 2 (C2) to Camp 3 (C3) is a safe and easy climb. It takes about three and a half hours for average stamina climbers to climb this section. After an hour walking above the snow in some 20 degrees of vertical like slope, you arrive at the rope fixing point. About two and a half hours ascending about 50-55 degrees slope wall, you reach Camp 3 which is just below the Yellow Band. Camp 3(C3) is also above a small snow hill which is comparatively safe.
Most of the climbers starting about 11:00 Pm for Cho Oyu summit target to reach the summit at around 07:00 am. That means the distance between Camp 3 to Cho Oyu Summit is an average of 08 hours of climbing.
About 15 minutes of climbing from the C3 you will reach the yellow band. There are two climbing routes to cross the yellow band from North-east and North-west sides. The right-hand path or North-east Cho Oyu The climbing route is a short cut but with higher risks of avalanches. The left-hand route or North-west route is long to cross but totally safe route. So, almost 95% of climbers use this climbing route even if approximately an hour long and we use this route as well. Almost from here to the plateau Cho Oyu Summit (8000M about) it takes about 5 hours on average pace.
Cho Oyu Summit
The climbing is roughly about 50-55 degrees slope from Yellow band climbers reaches to the false summit. After about climbing two hours in the comparatively flat slope of some 10 degrees and around 900m distance, you reach the main Cho Oyu summit. If you are a climber with Strong stamina, then you can climb all the way down to Camp 2 or even Camp 1 the same day. If you are a climber of average stamina then you descend down to Camp 3 and next day to Camp 1 and subsequent day to the Base Camp.
