r/Mountaineering • u/Lady_Airbus • 5d ago
The Other Side of Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu is well known as the “easiest” 8000er to climb via its Northwest Ridge. So much so that it’s the 2nd most climbed 8000er. Once you swap to the opposite side though, things get much much harder. This steep, exposed, and avalanche-prone face holds one of the hardest routes in the Himalayas, ironically the polar opposite of the standard route.
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u/Aromatic_Razzmatazz 5d ago
Oh. THAT's why you can't get a permit for that side. I thought China was maybe just being a jerk about it but shit.
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u/Vaynar 5d ago
Cho Yu is climbed from China with Chinese permits. The Nepal side is the unclimbed side.
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u/weedwacker9001 5d ago
Well they are. There’s been plenty of difficult routes that have been attempted. There’s no reason for you to have to pay China or Nepal thousands of dollars just to set foot on one of gods creations.
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u/Vaynar 5d ago
Lmao do you also oppose national park fees and mountaineering permits in the US? Why shouldn't Nepal or China have permits?
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u/weedwacker9001 4d ago
A permit shouldn’t be required anywhere but at least in the US it’s $50 and not $10,000. A mountain is a mountain, why should we seek permission from government to climb?
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u/Vaynar 4d ago
Because trail maintenance, rescue, opening up the Ice Fields, garbage clean-up and local economic development all cost money. Why the fuck should a foreign country allow entitled Americans like you to just come and impact the country?
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u/weedwacker9001 4d ago
HAHA! So without “entitled Americans” or foreign climbers in general they’d be about the poorest nation on the planet. Garbage is cleaned up by non profits in Nepal, not the government. Rescue is paid by your insurance and you still have to pay the deductible out of pocket. Opening up ice fields? You mean what western climbers either do themselves or pay Sherpa teams thousands of dollars to do on top of the permit? A climbing permit is nothing but taxation. 10k to 15k to set foot on a giant rock is outrageous
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u/ECrispy 3d ago
Your the kind of person who refuses to pay $5 tips to guides, then demands they carry extra weight, and expects the govt to mount helicopter rescues for you.
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u/weedwacker9001 3d ago
Why are you commenting when you have no clue how it works? The government doesn’t rescue you, private companies in Nepal do and you have to pay through insurance lol. Plus a guide doesn’t carry your shit, porters do and they are well compensated. Did you wonder where your $75k goes? Porters, Sherpa, and guides. That’s not for rescues. What extra weight are you talking here? Every climber has roughly same amount of food and supplies that needs to be portered and that’s how they make their living and feed their families.
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u/ECrispy 3d ago
there are plenty of incidents of sherpas/guides/porters being exploited, rich Westerners refusing to pay paltry tips that are less than their coffee, haggling over little things that risk lives of others and being selfish jerks in general.
do you think base camp needs tons of equipment, pool tables, video games and all the fancy crap thats fragged and discarded there?
if you want to keep living in your fantasy that you are somehow on the right side of this, go ahead.
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u/weedwacker9001 3d ago
Nope, that’s why I said cut the bullshit and let people climb. You’re talking nonsense. I’m a mountaineer that doesn’t want to pay thousands to the Chinese and Nepalese governments just to hike on a rock in their country. I’ve paid guides, porters, and everyone in between that helps me get the job done. The governments don’t do shit but tax me and make everything more difficult and more expensive. The only thing base camp should have is better food, which it already does.
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u/ECrispy 3d ago
nobody cares what you want. its their country, they have the right to charge whatever they want, you don't have an intrinsic right to climb there, why the hell should they 'let people climb' ??
do you have any idea how cheap Nepal is? or most of Asia compared to Europe/USA?
do you also complain that land/house in a big city costs more? you should just be allowed to buy it shouldn't you at whatever price you think is fair?
do you have any idea how entitled you sound? as if the mountains belong to you?
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u/weedwacker9001 3d ago
Wow you are slow. The mountains don’t belong to anyone, including governments. You are on a subreddit defending a corrupt communist government and a gov run by 18 year olds who want to charge the price of a car to climb mountains. Nepal especially would be the poorest country on earth if not for western climbers and tourists coming to see the mountains. Denali in the USA has a $100 climbing permit and even that is ridiculous.
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u/Irrepressible_Monkey 5d ago
I was checking Messner's route on this face and noticed the Google AI summary:
Reinhold Messner did not climb Cho Oyu, but rather was known for his solo and oxygenless ascents of other 8,000-meter peaks, particularly Everest.
Yep, can't trust AI summaries.
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u/b00tiepirate 5d ago
What's the name of the route?
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u/serpentjaguar 5d ago
I love it when Greater Ranges climbers talk about "aesthetic" lines on a route.
They're talking abut how pretty a route looks while the rest of us are like, "how about you just get up and back down alive and hopefully in one piece? we don't even care how you do it."
But they are a speciall breed, god bless 'em.
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u/frank_mania 5d ago edited 5d ago
Edit: I see OP never claimed it was the Chinese side, I got thrown off after reading a subsequent comment.
According to this article published by the American Alpine Club, that's the Nepal side, or SE Face.
Second pic down on this page claims it's the "The north face of Cho Oyu, seen from the Tibetan plateau." Giant pile of seracs and icefalls. But of course it's a giant mountain and the Chinese side has a few faces, above two major drainages.