Edge of the Map. Johanna Garton

he can stay with you!” Chris said spontaneously. “You said you’ve got a huge hotel room!” She was full of zest.

      Geri was beginning to like Chris more and more, despite the unwanted invitation she’d just offered Henry. “He can stay with me,” she said, “but where’s he gonna sleep?”

      “I’ll get my sleeping bag!” Chris said, jumping up to head to the car. “We’re going to do some badass rock tomorrow, but I can get it from you before we leave in the morning.” Shrugging, Keith trailed behind her.

      “They seem motivated,” said Geri.

      Glancing at Chris and Keith as they left, Henry took a sip of his second martini. He’d seen hundreds of mountaineers rise and fall. “Yeah, they seem to have what it takes, but I bet she’s going to outclimb him soon. And it seems like he might have a problem with that.”

      WITH THEIR BROAD PEAK EXPERIENCE still fresh, Chris and Keith were back in Asia in September 1996 for a go at Cho Oyu. Located twenty miles northwest of Mount Everest on the Tibet-Nepal border, Cho Oyu rises 8,201 meters. Its name is typically translated to “Goddess of Turquoise” in Tibetan, as it glows in this color when seen from Tibet in the late-day sun. Alternatively, some have translated Cho Oyu as “Bald God” to mirror a Tibetan legend in which a bald god known as Cho Oyu had his back turned to Chomolungma (Mount Everest) because she refused his marriage proposal.

      Considered a relatively simple ascent, Cho Oyu often receives attention as one of the first peaks alpinists attempt over 8,000 meters. With very few technical sections, predictable avalanches, and decent weather much of the time, the mountain sees a fair amount of traffic. Because of its location straddling the Tibet-Nepal border, Cho Oyu Advanced Base Camp has occasionally more drama than the usual bouts of high-altitude mountain sickness. The glacial pass of Nangpa La is just beyond base camp, overlapping part of a trade route between Tibet and Nepal’s Khumbu Valley.