January 04, 2023
Cho Oyu
This week the weather in Cho Oyu is good but the climbers will not be able to take advantage because they have not been able to replace their lost gear. They are retrieving equipment lost from camp 1 where they found a few Down suits and sleeping bags in the crevasse but not everything. The climbers have no spare high-altitude clothing and can’t afford to leave anyone on the small team behind.
Adriana Brownlee wrote “Cho Oyu update: still chugging on at bc and unfortunately no downsuits or sleeping bags yet which means we can’t make any moves on this window. One of the hard things about this mountain is that it’s steep and incredibly windy. So between rotations any equipment left would be blown away. We have to climb in one push with very heavy packs. We also have a small team so everyone must carry their own equipment, it gets pretty hefty!! Sometimes things happen that are totally out of your control and led to missing a crucial window this week! But we keep our heads up because that’s the way of the RED2BLUE mindset and the way all our team is adapting to coping with pressure! We must keep each other motivated and positive!”
Manaslu
Alex and his team reached Camp 2 despite the extreme wind. They had to drag a lot of material along the way. But in spite of this, Alex and his team feel very good, motivated, and eager to keep going up. A long, stable weather window should allow them to head up the mountain in the next few days.
Dhaulagiri
David Goettler and Herve Barmasse already flew to base camp yesterday. they are acclimatized and ready to launch a single summit push up the mountain as soon as conditions are right.
