The Slovenian Pavle Kozjek has climbed a new route on the Southwest Face of 8,201-meter (26,906 feet) Cho Oyu in a solo single push from advanced base camp. Leaving camp at 3:30 a.m. on October 2, Kozjek pioneered around 3,600 feet of new ground, mostly on snow and ice, to reach the Polish Ridge, which he followed for another 3,000 vertical feet to the summit. He met the crux of his line at a near-vertical frozen waterfall at 23,600 feet, which he bypassed with 5.6 rock climbing. Despite deep snow on the Polish Ridge, Kozjek reached the summit after just 14.5 hours of climbing. 

During the climb, Kozjek carried only three insulated water bottles, six energy  gels, spare gloves, a bivy sack, and a camera. He descended via Cho Oyu's normal route and reached base camp before noon the next day. Kozjek, 47, climbed an alpine-style new route on Shishapangma in 1989 with Andrej Stremfelj and has done a number of very diffcult new routes in Peru. Four other Slovenian climbers started up the Southwest Face of Cho Oyu on the same day as Kozjek in two rope teams; they camped once en route, reaching the top via the new line the day after Kozjek. 

Meanwhile, on 8,046-meter (26,398 feet) Shishapangma in Tibet, Iñaki Ochoa de Olza soloed a new variation on the Northesast Face.  On October 3, the climber from Navarra, Spain, left Camp 1 on the peak's normal route at 1:10 a.m. Finding dangerous avalanche conditions en route, he left Camp 3 at around 24,400 feet, descended about 500 feet in a long traverse to the east, and then climbed directly to the main summit of Shishapangma, finding snow and ice up to 60° and a short rock step. Ochoa de Olza, 39, has now climbed 11 of the 14 8,000-meter peaks.

Sources: Pavle Kozjek; www.extremekanal.com; www.navarra8000.com/ 

Dates of Ascents: Cho Oyu, October 2, 2006; Shishapangma, October 3, 2006.
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