Connect
My travel diaries
The Wrath of the Turquoise Goddess
Battling blizzards and avalanches on the world’s sixth highest mountain. August/September/October 2010.
By Mark Horrell
In the Autumn of 2010, I set off to Tibet with a dozen other hopeful mountaineers, including the Olympic rowing champion Steve Williams and former Welsh rugby international Richard Parks, to climb 8201m Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world, whose name translates as the Turquoise Goddess in Tibetan.
It was to be an extraordinary season on the mountain believed to be the simplest and safest 8000 metre peak in the world. Battered by blizzards for weeks, many climbers were caught in avalanches, and the mountain was abandoned by nearly all the teams at Base Camp before a single summit had been attained, but perhaps even more remarkably no one had died.
The eventual tally for the season was just two successful summits and one death. This diary tells the story of how events unfolded on what was to prove one of the least successful climbing seasons Cho Oyu has seen.
(The below is a personal account of my adventure. For an official account of how the expedition got on, you can read Jagged Globe's Cho Oyu expedition dispatches).
CONTENTS
Web versions of each diary entry are free to view.
If you enjoy reading them, you may like to buy the Kindle e-book of the
complete diary from only $0.99 on Amazon in the following currencies:
USD ($) | GBP (£) | EUR (€)
Tuesday 31 August, 2010 - Lhasa, Tibet - Introducing the Mad Professor
Wednesday 1 September, 2010 - Lhasa, Tibet - The Potala Palace and the Jokhang
Thursday 2 September, 2010 - Lhasa, Tibet - A lonely hermitage above Lhasa
Friday 3 September, 2010 - Shigatse, Tibet - Along the Friendship Highway
Saturday 4 September, 2010 - New Tingri, Tibet - A big monastery and a wily old climber
Sunday 5 September, 2010 - Shegar, Tibet - The Buddhist Wheel of Life, begging children, and an old ruin on a hillside
Monday 6 September, 2010 - Chinese Base Camp, Tibet - A first sight of Cho Oyu
Tuesday 7 September, 2010 - Chinese Base Camp, Tibet - A day of acclimatisation
Wednesday 8 September, 2010 - Interim Camp, Cho Oyu, Tibet - Pumping Matjaz inside a portable altitude chamber
Thursday 9 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - An old Slovenian joke; a splitting headache
Friday 10 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - A description of Base Camp; high altitude drama
Saturday 11 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Acclimatisation slog across boulders to 6000m
Sunday 12 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Puja
Monday 13 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - The dreaded scree slope
Tuesday 14 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - No kind of rest day
Wednesday 15 September, 2010 - Camp 1, Cho Oyu, Tibet - Our first night on the mountain
Thursday 16 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp - A first look at Cho Oyu’s infamous Serac Wall
Friday 17 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp - Avalanche above Camp 3; several Tibetan climbers hurt
Saturday 18 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp - Tomaz and Alenka’s overnight adventure
Sunday 19 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp - Altitude talk
Monday 20 September, 2010 - Camp 1, Cho Oyu, Tibet - Back up the mountain
Tuesday 21 September, 2010 - Camp 2, Cho Oyu, Tibet - Heart pumping and lungs gasping
Wednesday 22 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Descent in a blizzard
Thursday 23 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Digging up the shower tent
Friday 24 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Souvenir hunting at 5700m
Saturday 25 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Cards, food, books and movies
Sunday 26 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp - At the Nangpa La, the border of Tibet and Nepal
Monday 27 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Another avalanche; the Turquoise Goddess isn’t happy
Tuesday 28 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp - A waiting game at Base Camp as hope fades
Wednesday 29 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - The expedition is abandoned; the strangest party in the world
Thursday 30 September, 2010 - Cho Oyu Base Camp, Tibet - Following in the wake of an Olympic champion
Friday 1 October, 2010 - Nyalam, Tibet - Yaks, feet, cattle trucks and coaches
Saturday 2 October, 2010 - The Friendship Bridge, Tibet/Nepal - Across the border and on to Kathmandu
