Casey Grom Reports from Cho Oyu

Whittaker Mountaineering Guide Team member, Casey Grom talks about the team's decision to retreat from Cho Oyu: 

Hey RMI and everybody back home. This is Casey checking in from the Cho Oyu Expedition.

Just wanted to let everyone know that today we officially decided to pull the plug and not continue to climb on the upper mountain. The snow conditions continue to exist. It's a relatively high level of avalanche hazard as well as no one has been on the upper mountain in the last few days. We are certainly not going to be the first team to be up there and stick our necks out. Add that to the forecast that we have, which is some high winds and cold temperatures as the jet stream approaches and we are actually even seeing that today with some winds and some clouds building. The majority of the expeditions here have all packed up and are heading home currently. There are a few individuals left that may stick their necks out and give it a shot, but again, we think that it is foolish for our team to take that risk.

Everyone's doing great. Today we actually hiked up to Camp 1 and picked up most of our gear that we had left there. We got the majority of that stuff back to Advanced Basecamp here. Our plan is to relax here for the next day and then our yaks come in on the 3rd to pick up all of our loads to carry that stuff back to the main road, which is about a day-and-a-half trek. Our plan is to leave on the 3rd and try to get to the road and hopefully catch a ride on the 4th. Then we'll drive from Basecamp to Zangmu, on the border of Tibet and Nepal. Our plan then on the 5th is to possibly arrive in Kathmandu if everything goes well.

I'm happy that everyone feels good with our decision and we look forward to coming home and seeing everybody and telling you all about our adventure. Thanks a lot you guys.
Casey and crew

Casey Checks in from Cho Oyu

Whittaker Mountaineering Guide Team member,  Casey Grom checks in from ABC on Cyo Oyu:

"Tah-shi de-leh." Hello everybody. "Tah-shi de-leh" is a Tibetan greeting that is used when greeting people and also when you say "Good-bye."

This is Casey checking in from the Cho Oyu Expedition.
The team is doing great. We've been relaxing here at ABC for the last two days taking rest days, catching up on sleep, reading, and having lots of social time in our tent because it has been snowing nonstop since we've been here. We get these squawls that come through every day for several hours and then some light breaks. With the weather we are going to take one more day of rest tomorrow down here and then head up to Camp 1 the day after.

Currently the upper mountain has a fair amount of new snow and the sherpa teams that are in charge of fixing the route to the summit have not been able to get too far due to the deep snow and avalanche conditions. We are sitting good because we are still about ten days out from our summit bid, which is great. There are several teams here that are itching to go since they have been here at ABC for the last week waiting for the weather to open up so they can go do their summit attempt. We are nice and relaxed here with our schedule.
Kumar, our cook, has been taking great care of us and keeping us healthy. One more day of relaxation and we'll check in again probably when we head up to Camp 1 two days from now.

Okay everybody, hope you're doing well.
-Casey and crew

Casey Grom Reports From Cho Oyu

Whittaker Mountaineering Guide Team member, Casey Grom reports from his Cho Oyu climb:

September 15


Hello everybody this is Casey checking in from Cho Oyu.

A lot has happened in the last few days. First off, we left our Interim Camp and have safely arrived at Advanced Base Camp where we will be based out of for the remainder of the climb. It was a beautiful hike across the moraine to reach a moderately flat spot which sits at 18,500' and makes it one of the highest Base Camps in the world.
The team pulled into camp and immediately began working hard to get camp set up. After most of our yaks arrived, we collected our things and got settled in for the night. It snowed most of the night and we woke up to warm, sunshine this morning which was welcomed by all.

Today we had our Puja ceremony which is a Buddhist ceremony where we ask for safe passage and for a safe climb. A Buddhist holy man, called a lama, presided over our ceremony. It was very surreal to hear the lama chanting while we sat looking up at the mountain we hope to climb. We made some small offerings to the mountain mostly food and drink which the local birds happily cleaned up. It snowed during the ceremony which the lama said was a good sign.

It continued to snow for the rest of the day and we spent time resting and acclimatizing to this new altitude.
Everyone is doing great and we are having fun too.
-Casey and crew

*Stay tuned for more updates from Casey as they make progress up the mountain.