It’s All Over on Shisha Pangma Northside, Summit Push on Cho Oyu

Deemed too dangerous to climb and with no hope of reaching the summit, French team has abandoned it’s expedition on Shisha Pangma North side. The development follows unfortunate loss of two climbers on the mountain, a week ago. Meanwhile, summit spree continues elsewhere, as Extrek Team launches summit-bid on Cho Oyu, today.

Shisha Pangma
Second (and apparently the last) team on Shisha Pangma North side has decided to conclude the expedition due to bad conditions. Last week, two members of Kobler-Partner expedition died at around 6200m in a crevasse fall incident. The team consequently left the mountain. Five member French expedition (Frédéric Heymes, Claude Labatut, Thibault Cossinet, François Delpech, Gael Forest) have just announced its departure.

Facebook message from the team reads. “The expedition has lost hope of climbing to the summit. Safety conditions are too bad on the route (badly open crevices, bare ice). Here, another expedition lost two climbers and a third miraculously escaped. After consultation, the group decided to give up. They are extremely disappointed, but everything is going well for them.”

Ueli Steck and David Gottler on South side are most likely the only expedition left on Shisha Pangma.
Shisha Pangma as seen from Northern approach; Source

Cho Oyu Summit-Bid
Extrek Expedition led by Thomas Lammle have just launched the summit push on Cho Oyu. After receiving green signal about summit window on May 6th/7th, the team left ABC at around 1600hrs. They arrived at C1 (6400m) after sunset.

Climbing conditions on Cho Oyu are also challenging, this season. Route between C1 and C2 is full of blue ice, and needed to be fixed completely. Extrek team established route till 6800m on April 30th, before snowstorm forced them to retreat. Other expeditions on Cho Oyu are still acclimatizing and are not expected to go for summit this time.

Thomas Lammle intends to climb Everest without oxygen after Cho Oyu.
Cho Oyu as seen from intermediate BC (5400m); Source
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