Hardwear Sessions

In the summer of 2007, the German climber Robert Jasper traveled to Tibet to attempt a solo climb of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest peak in the world. In Jasper's own words, "First I [will] try to climb alone the NW ridge (classic route) to the summit. If the conditions are well, I will try to solo a first ascent using new route up to the summit."

Last week, Jasper experienced an ice avalanche on Cho Oyu's glacier. Here, he tells the story.

After an interesting journey through Tibet from Lhasa, I reached base camp safely. I started from camp ABC (advanced base camp) 5700 meters in perfect weather for the acclimatization up the mountain.

I reached camp 1 at 6400 meters and set up my very small bunker tent. Some days later I was back on the way to camp 1 to climb higher up the mountain. Suddenly, a very big serace collapsed at around 7000 meters and crashed down to the glacier were I was climbing up.

I jumped behind a small boulder. The pressure and the snow stopped my breathing and I thought, "It's over." But luckily the big ice and snow avalanche stopped some meters in front of me. I injured my shoulder and neck during this action but at least I had very big luck to survive.

After a check by the expedition doctor at base camp and some rest days, I tried to climb the mountain again but the pain and the injuries were too big.

For me [there is] now no chance to climb at the moment and to try to summit.

So this expedition is over but I am lucky to survive.