A Fatal Obsession -
The Women of Cho Oyu, A Reporting Saga

A Fatal Obsession - The Women of Cho Oyu, a reporting saga, tells the story of how the only all-woman Himalayan expedition ended in tragedy in 1959. The Himalayas had been regarded as a male preserve for 60 years until Madame Claude Kogan, an elfin figure became obsessed with scaling a peak called Cho Oyu, at 26,750 feet the sixth highest mountain in the world. With a Swiss expedition led by renowned climber Raymond Lambert she climbed to within 1,354 feet of the summit when a blizzard broke and Lambert decided to turn back, overriding Madam Kogan's protests. She wrote later "I felt myself boiling with impotent rage, ready to dare anything if we could continue with the struggle. Although my reason saw it was the only logical decision to take, my heart refused to accept it. I didn't wish bow my head before the wind and snow that would must eventually hurl us back. ‘Don't turn back yet’ I gasped."

Thwarted by this male decision Madame Kogan, a beachwear designer in Nice, determined on leading an exclusively female expedition to the same mountain. She told a gathering of 50 British climbers at the Women's Alpine Club in London that women should look higher than the Alps and explained her plans to lead an all women expedition to Cho Oyu. Three of her British listeners joined the expedition along with women from France, Belgium, Switzerland, the two teenage daughters and a niece of Sherpa Tenzing who with Sir Edmund Hilary had been first to reach the summit of Everest 6 years before.

Madame Kogan's impatience to reach the summit during a break of fine weather before the end of Monsoon storms lead to her death along with star Belgian Alpinist Claudine van der Stratten and two male Sherpas.

The story is based on bundles of letters and notes the women sent to the author when he was assigned to cover the expedition for the Daily Express, plus the women's account of the summit attempt told him when he reached their base camp. The notes and photographs were in store through the many years he roved the world on other stories. This book was written because he discovered that no record of this unique all-women expedition existed.