Mountaineering|In September, Anni Penttilä plans to climb the fourth mountain over 8,000 meters high.
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Anni Penttilä is preparing to climb to the top of Cho Oyu.
Penttilä has already climbed three mountains over 8,000 meters high.
Penttilä has learned from his mistake and changed his preparation in two ways.
The Chinese authorities have delayed the trip several times.
Hangover of the week. Doesn’t sound good even after the best party of the century and especially if there hasn’t been any party.
Anni Penttilä have experience of feeling hungover without alcohol. At the end of August, he went on a trip where avoiding the situation is the key to achieving the actual goal.
Penttilä, 31, has climbed three mountains over 8,000 meters high, and the goal is to summit all 14 “double ton” ones. So far, the only Finn who has succeeded in the trick is Veikka Gustafsson.
In May, Penttilä summited the world’s fourth highest mountain, Lhotse (8,516 meters), and now it’s Cho Oyu (8,188), the sixth highest mountain on the list. In order to survive without a “hangover”, Penttilä has learned from his mistake and made two changes compared to his spring contract.
Cho Oyu, located on the border between China and Nepal, is considered the easiest of all casitones and is therefore popular when preparing for the conquest of Mount Everest, for example.
However, ease is really relative in mountain climbing. The fact that the Finnish mountaineer tells about it, among other things Noora Toivonen died on the mountain in 2000.
“There are no easy box tonnages,” states Penttilä.
This time the departure date of the trip has been moved several times. The reasons are the Chinese authorities who manage entry and climbing permits.
Originally, Penttilä was supposed to be able to leave as part of a six-person Swiss-German expedition as early as August 20, but the departure was postponed twice.
The paperwork to satisfy the Chinese authorities was also second to none.
“I have delivered an awful lot of documents, starting from where my parents went to school or what my own elementary school was. It’s interesting what they’re actually going to do with that information.”
A fair amount of equipment is included, including four different antibiotics.
The Chinese authorities finally granted the climbing permit on August 26, i.e. the same day Penttilä arrived in Kathmandu. With these prospects, the visa is heating up this week.
However, the dark cloud created by the delays had a silver lining. Penttilä decided to leave in good time to the Langtang area, which is a short drive from Kathmandu. There he climbed to an altitude of about 5,500 meters and got used to the high altitude, i.e. acclimatized.
One of the reasons for thorough preparation is a mistake that Penttilä made in the spring at Lhotse. Before starting his job as a tour guide, he was hiking and climbing and then flew straight to the base camp at an altitude of 5,300 meters.
The ascent was too fast, and the body reported it with a convulsion.
“It was a really rough week. Like a really bad cake of the week. I couldn’t really sleep and I had palpitations.”
“There’s nothing else that makes it easier than spending time up there. Moving lightly and drinking water helps, but there’s really nothing you can do to speed up the process.”
New The preparation also included the fact that Penttilä spent a week at the Pajulahti sports college in a room whose oxygen content has been reduced to match the thin air of the mountains. The rooms are used, among other things, by skiers, but the limits of the equipment could only be properly tested at Penttilä.
Even less is enough for skiers, but Penttilä spent four days at 2,800–4,000 meters and finally three days at 4,500 meters in similar conditions. This is how acclimatization was already started in Finland.
Careful preparation is a basic requirement when the goal is to climb to a height of more than 8,000 meters. Even when it is an “easy” mountain.
According to Penttilä, what makes Cho Oyun easier than many other mountains is that, for example, the risks of avalanches are smaller, and there are no dangerous places like the infamous Khumbu glacier on the route of Lhotse and Everest.
“There shouldn’t be any really challenging sections. There are no rock climbing sections, we mainly go on snow.”
Lhotse had to cross the unstable and dangerous Khumbu Glacier, but Cho Oyu has nothing like it.
Penttilä would have liked to try to the top of Cho Oyu without supplemental oxygen, but the condition for obtaining a climbing permit was the use of supplemental oxygen and a Sherpa. Photo from Lhotse.
However, Penttilä has experienced firsthand that ease is relative.
“Manaslu (8,163 meters) is said to be easy to climb, but for me it has been one of the most difficult. In 2022, there was bad weather, strong winds, snowfall and avalanches caused by them. So not easy by any means.”
Penttilä climbs Cho Oyu with strangers, but sets off with confidence. The climbing operator has convinced with its activities. Pre-acclimatization in an alpine tent would have been offered, but the six-week preparation period sounded too long to Penttilä.
However, even a small amount of money won’t get rid of the service. Penttilä’s trip with flights to Kathmandu costs a total of 37,000 euros.
However, Penttilä does not have to dig the entire amount out of his own pocket, but he gets support from his partners, such as, for example, his partner that manufactures thermos bottles. Penttilä cannot reveal the exact amount, but the contract enables at least one cas-ton climb per year.
“All the time I’m saving money for climbing, but it’s always scraping and scraping together from all possible sources.”
“I have sometimes wondered how much money I have spent on mountain climbing. It’s starting to be a pretty big amount, but I haven’t regretted a single trip.”
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