Mount Lhotse Expedition -8,516m/27,940 ft

Fix Departure 06 April 2019

Mount Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world with the height of 8,516m/27,940 ft, part of the Everest massif, Lhotse is connected to the latter peak via the South Col. Lhotse means “South Peak” in Tibetan. In addition to the main summit at 8,516m/27,940ft height above sea level, the mountain comprises the smaller peaks Lhotse Middle (East) at 8,414 m/27,605 ft, and Lhotse Shar at 8,383 m /27,503 ft. The summit is on the border between Tibet and the Khumbu region of Nepal.

An early attempt on Lhotse was by the International Himalayan Expedition in 1955, headed by Norman Dyhrenfurth. It also included two Austrians (cartographer Erwin Schneider and Ernst Senn) and two Swiss (Bruno Spirig and Arthur Spöhel). They were the accompanied by 200 local porters and several climbing Sherpas. They were beaten back by unexpectedly strong wind and cold temperatures. Under Schneider's direction they completed the first map of the Everest area .The expedition also made several short films covering local cultural topics, and made a number of first ascents of smaller peaks in the Khumbu region.

The main summit of Lhotse was first climbed on May 18, 1956, by the Swiss team of Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger from the Swiss Mount Everest/Lhotse Expedition. On May 12, 1970, Sapp Mayerl and Rolf Walter of Austria made the first ascent of Lhotse Shar. Lhotse Middle remained, for a long time, the highest unclimbed named point on Earth; on May 23, 2001, its first ascent was made by Eugeny Vinogradsky, Sergei Timofeev, Alexei Bolotov and Petr Kuznetsov of a Russian expedition.

Lhotse standard climbing route follows the same path as Everest's South Col route up to the Yellow Band beyond camp 3. After the Yellow Band the routes diverge with climbers bound for Everest taking a left over the Geneva Spur up to the South Col, while Lhotse climbers take a right further up the Lhotse face. The last part to the summit leads through the narrow "Reiss couloir" until the Lhotse main peak is reached.

Mount Lhotse