J.J. Justman

On the Himalayan peak of Cho Oyu, J.J. Justman’s expedition had something that climbers just can’t get on Mount Everest.

The mountain to themselves.

On May 15, Justman, a guide for Mountain Link Guide Service in Bend, reached the summit of 26,906-foot Cho Oyu with fellow guide Mike Horst of Seattle and two Sherpas.

Cho Oyu sits just west of 29,035-foot Everest, the highest peak in the world.

Justman reached the summit of Everest in 2004 and took part in another expedition on the mountain last year.

While Everest can be crowded with hundreds of climbers on a summit day, Justman and his teammates on Cho Oyu were the only mountaineers to reach the top of Cho Oyu on May 15.

”It was a lot different than being surrounded by a hundred people on summit day,” Justman, back in Bend, said this week. ”In the springtime, everybody’s on Everest. In the fall, everyone goes to Cho Oyu. So we did the opposite. It was more of a serene experience.”

Justman said that Cho Oyu is regarded as the easiest to climb of the world’s 14 8,000-meter peaks. But after reaching the top, he said he believes otherwise.

”There were vertical sections of ice and rock that were pretty technical,” Justman said of Cho Oyu. ”But it is really accessible. You can drive to base camp at 16,000 feet, but it’s not an easy climb.”

Justman said members of his climbing expedition enjoyed beautiful weather as they made their way to the Cho Oyu summit.

As they neared the top, they climbed along a long plateau that seemed to go on forever, Justman recalled.

”But you know you’re there because you get to the top and Everest is right there,” Justman said. ”That’s when everyone started to summit Everest, on that day. We could see the north and south side.”

Cho Oyu is located primarily Tibet. But when climbers reach the summit, they step into Nepal.

Justman’s group recorded video footage of the climb that is available on Internet video podcasts on the Web sites www.mountain-link.com and www.podclimber.com.

Justman said he plans later this month to lead a group of German climbers on Alaska’s Mount McKinley (North America’s tallest peak, at 20,320 feet) before spending most of the summer on Washington’s 14,410-foot Mount Rainier.