Cold Avenger athlete Chris Klinke was hoping to summit Cho Oyu this fall. But after several attempts and delays, the weather just wasn’t going to let that happen. While the strong winds and snow were a good test on his ColdAvenger face mask, the conditions proved to be too much for a safe summit. Chris writes about this last attempt on his blog:
I wish I could say that we went up the mountain and had success in reaching the top. We did not.
We went up to camp 1 in strong winds and low temps. Found one of our tent fly’s ripped to shreds. Had a long nigh of high winds. Woke up to still more wind and moved up to camp 2. By the time I arrived I felt like my face had been to one of those fancy spas where they sand blast the outer layer of skin off your face. We found both our tents standing but definiely the worse for wear. We rested and brewed up but the the winds did not die down. We made the decision to wait it out one more night. During the next day clouds built, snow came, and our constant companion the wind stayed with us. The big issue with wind is that the ambient temperature at the summit is -25 to -30f add a 25mph wind to that and it is bitter cold and high risk of frost bite.
At about 2pm we pulled the plug on the climb and came down figuring it was not going to be our season.
On any expedition, luck and timing play a huge role. Based on my estimate there were 3-4 days that Cho Oyu was summitable. Unfortunately we were not in a position to take advantage of any of those days. The team is in great spirits knowing that we did everything we could to reach the top.
This morning we woke to 4-6 inches of snow at ABC so it helps with our decision.
Thanks for all the support…Until next time.
For more on Chris visit his blog site here.
For more on the Cold Avenger face mask click here.
Tags: Cho Oyu, Cho Oyu Summit, Chris Klinke, Climbing Expedition, cold avenger, Cold Avenger Athlete, mountain climbing, mountaineering, Talus Outdoor Technologies