Organisation: Gruppo Alpinistico Redorta of Villa di Serio (Bergamo)

Expedition leader: Giuseppe Vigani

Team: 19 members, among them climbers, technical support and scientists.

Climb method: scale the northwest face, in Chinese-Tibetan territory, following Reinhold Messner's 1982 itinerary.

Sports result: on 8th May, Bruno Ongis, Giuseppe Vigani and Mauro Soregaroli reached the summit.

Scientific research: study of problems linked to prolonged periods at high altitudes, in particular Acute Mountain Sickness and alimentation under extreme stress.

From the diary of the journey...
CHO-OYU is a mountain in the Himalayan system and one of the 14 "8000 metres" on earth; it is situated about 30 kilometres northwest of Everest and has been known since the 1921 "Ersten-Everest Expedition".
Three mounds descend from the summit of CHO-OYU and form the Gyabrag and Palung vallies in Tibetan territory and Ngozumpa and Lungsampa in Nepal. Access to the base of the mountain is by two tracks, one of which starts from Tingri, Tibet and the other from Nanche-Bazar in Nepal.
The latter approach itinerary was once used by important commercial caravans and traders, in spite of the arduousness of the link, (pass Nangpa La is at 5716 metres), but today it is almost in disuse due to new routes discovered further south, which make Nanche-Bazar more accessible. Nanche-Bazar, the Sherpa capital, was and remains to the present day the most important centre of the vallies of Everest (Solu-Kumbu), and an intersection with the population of Tibet which remains of prime importance to the Sherpa people.
Our mountain was approached for the first time in 1951 by British explorers. But it was not until 1954 that an Austrian expedition, led by Tichy, set foot on the summit for the first time, following a logical itinerary from the east face.
Cho-Oyu was not conquered again until 1958 by the Indian expedition, followed by the 1964 German party.
After that, the area was barred to foreigners for 17 long years by the Chinese and Nepal governments for political reasons.
Only in 1981, following the official re-opening of the area, were attempts made once more to conquer Cho-Oyu. In the spring of 1983, Messner and his companions reached the summit for the fifth time, starting from Nanche-Bazar and crossing the Nangpa-La Pass.
The Nepalese southeast face presented severe objective difficulties (avalanches) and, therefore, mountaineers opt increasingly for walls which are objectively safer.
Since the re-opening of the frontier to foreigners 10 years ago, climbers have flocked to Cho-Oyu, which had long been in the shadow of world mountaineering, numerous expeditions leaving intact the area of secondary summits, especially in the north-south direction of the chain.