Cho Oyu, which means “The Turquoise Goddess” is known as the sixth highest mountain in the world, located a short distance to the west from the world's highest mountain, the Everest and the fourth highest, the Lhotse in the Khumbu region of Eastern Nepal along the Tibetan border. Its one of the towering peak that stands with Everest well above the surrounding mountains. Cho Oyu became a familiar landmark to climbers ascending Everest's north face.

Just west of Cho Oyu is the Nangpa La, a 19,000-foot glacier pass, the main trade route between the Khumbu Sherpas and Tibet. Cho Oyu's proximity to the Nangpa La has earned it the distinction among some climbers as being the easiest 8,000 meter peak. It was the third such peak climbed, and the first climbed in Autumn. It was first climbed on October 19th 1954 by the Austrian Herbert Tichy, with Sepp Jochler and Pasang Dava Lama.

Cho Oyu Mountaineering Attemps & Expeditions

• First climbing expedition of Cho Oyu's Northwest face by Edmund Hillary and party.

• A small Austrian expedition, under the leadership of Herbert Tichy, make a spectacular first ascent without oxygen on the Northwest face. This new style of climbing big mountains with alpine techniques rewrote mountaineering history.

• Second ascent by an Indian expedition. Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama, who was part of the first ascent, reached the peak for the second time. First death on Cho Oyu.

• Four members of an expedition are killed in an avalanche during a failed international women's expedition.
  Controversial third ascent by a German expedition. No proof of reaching the summit. Two mountaineers die in Camp 4 of exhaustion at 7600 m (25,000 foot) height.

• The Austrian alpinists, Koblmuller and Furtner, succeeds in a spectacular ascent of the extremely difficult and dangerous southeast face.

• Reinhold Messner succeeds on his fourth attempt.

• First winter ascent of the South buttress by a Polish expedition. The South Buttress is the most difficult route on Cho Oyu to be completed successfully