Jamie's 1999-2001 8000m gallery

Early 8000m peak memories

Cho Oyu is a BIG mountain, and scarier than you would at first think for a peak that is supposedly 'easy' to climb. For Cho Oyu in 1999 and Shishapangma in 2000 Jamie climbed without sherpas, in fact with even base camp support. Then in 2001 managed 2 expeditions to Cho Oyu.

Fcuk that snow was DEEP. Fourteen hard yakka hours thru thigh to hip deep stodge and on the summit plateau it was still knee-deep. I did summit (although see the 1999 Cho Oyu diary) but nobody else did, so this is taken somewhere on the plateau.

But first the adventure of getting to the mountain - here we are leaving Cho Oyu base camp (Chinese BC).

April-May 2000: A team - L to R, Bengt, Hugo, Bill, me, Steve and Bill

And Betsy came trekking.

And the mountain, Cho Oyu 8201m. The route is up the right face, in fact only from above camp 3 is visible.

So we are now at ABC at 5700m. Here a yak train winds their way to the top of the Nangpa La. Yep, there are some real mountains around. Photo from Bengt.

We will skip the boring bit in the middle (I haven't looked at the films yet) and get to Camp 3 at 7500m. My first time heading to the summit I didn't take a tent, instead slept outside and dug a hole to put the stove in because it was windy so this is Duncan Chessell's (DCXP's) camp.

Patrick is about to unpack his down suit...

As you climb higher the views just get better

Getting up there! After the steep climb then at 8100m, you have to trek across this plateau...

From the summit of Cho Oyu, Everest does a mind-blow in the background.

Jamie (above) and Duncan (below) have summitted multiple times.

Duncan scattering Tibetan prayers atop Cho Oyu.

The trailbreakers in 1999, Gombu, myself and Phurba Pasang. Gombu and PAsang were working for the Korean expedition.

Astride the Central Summit of Shishapangma, September 2000.

Some people use bottled oxygen, here a sherpa uses the oxygen a Japanese girl didn't want.
She got minor frostbite and if she had used this, she wouldn't have...