Ascending the fixed lines

Main Cho Oyu ABC

Sept. 11 - ABC
    
Tashi Delek otra vez!

All the sudden we’re in a wind storm- seconds ago it was sunny, warm- sort of felt like the beach. Looks like we’re in for a strong hour or two of precipitation and winds. I intended on taking advantage of the intense sun powering our solar set up here. So it goes here at ABC on Cho Oyu.

It was a beautiful afternoon of relaxing and resting. Tomorrow the work begins again on our return to CI and move up to CII. This is our last stage of acclimatizing up above ABC before we go for our summit push. The intention is to be gone for three nights beginning tomorrow a.m.

BUT- today was all about none of that. Paul just had an interesting hour hanging out in the cook tent with Gopal our Nepali cook, and Lhakchung our Tibetan kitchen boy. Paul and I poured ourselves a small cup of Lhasa beer and settled in to watch the wonderful and elusive communication between the two. Gopal speaks to Lhakchung in Nepali and Lhakchung responds in Tibetan. In between there are plenty of hand gestures and acting. It was like watching a good charade game. When all else fails they turn to the tried and true “Puerto Vallarta American technique”… raise your voice and keep repeating in the language they don’t understand. It was good fun.

We’re in the cocktail hour here in ABC (5:10 pm) which basically means some black tea, tortilla chips and salsa, and some music on the functioning ipod. Soon another great meal from Gopal will arrive. We’ll have a pleasant dinner hour, get quite cold afterwards, and make our way to our beds at the late hour of 8 pm. ABC has filled up substantially in the past few days. I snapped one photo of the center of camp that shows half of the camps. At this point we’re estimating that there are 14-18 teams in ABC of varying sizes. By the time we return from our trip up high it should be a good obstacle course trying to reach our camp on the far side.

Everyone is feeling great and exciting to continue our progress upwards. I’ve included a couple photos in this dispatch as it will be our last longer dispatch with photos until we return from up high. Unfortunately our Pocket PC has crapped out and we won’t be able to send text and photo dispatches from above ABC. We’ll be calling in these reports and then they will be posted on the site- so please be patient. So it goes here on Cho Oyu.

The team says hi to all their friends and family.

We’ll be in touch,
Dave and the team