Some facts about the trip

Mountain: Shishapangma
It’s the lowest of the fourteen eight thousand meter peaks in the world
Located in south-central Tibet, a few kilometres from the border with Nepal.
It is the only eight-thousander entirely within Chinese territory
I will be attempting the "standard" route from the North side

Height gain from base camp is 3,027m
I will probably travel over 220km on the climb
Due to load carrying and the acclimatisation required, I will actually ascend over 9,000m

Base Camp - 5,000m - Will drive there
Advanced Base Camp - 5,600m - Will use Yaks to carry all my gear. I will be using Project Himalaya for infrastructure support up to this level
Depot Camp – 5,800m – Climbing starts from here and my objective is to have no support from here onwards
Camp 1 – 6,500m – Am going to try to go 100m higher for this camp than last year. After crossing the penitentes steep climb up to Camp 1
Camp 2 – 7,000m – in a valley north of the summit
Camp 3 – 7,500 – On a ridge leading to the summit
True Summit – 8,027 – a bit of a knife ridge - see picture below

Jump to www.8000m.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-earth-climbing-route-analysis.html to see analysis of route

Will carry at least:
6 loads to Depot Camp
4 loads to Camp 1
2 loads to Camp 2
1 load to Camp 3
Then back to ABC for so rest and recuperation before climbing to the summit over about 5 to 7 days





A shot of Ed Viesturs (has climbed all fourteen eight thousanders) returning from the true summit of Shisha