Lhotse

Lhotse (Nepali: ल्हो�त्से�; Chinese: 洛子峰; pinyin: Luòzǐ Fēng; Tibetan: ལྷོ� ་རྩེ� , Wylie: lho rtse, ZYPY:

Lhozê) is the fourth highestmountain on Earth (after Mount Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga) and is connected to Everest via the South Col. Lhotse means “South Peak” in Tibetan. In addition to the main summit at 8,516 metres (27,940 ft) above sea level, Lhotse Middle (East) is 8,414 m (27,605 ft) and Lhotse Shar is 8,383 m (27,503 ft). It is located at the border between Tibet (China) and the Khumbu region of Nepal.

Climbing[edit]

An early attempt on Lhotse was by the 1955 International Himalayan Expedition, headed by Norman

Dyhrenfurth. It also included two Austrians (cartographer Erwin Schneider and Ernst Senn) and two

Swiss (Bruno Spirig and Arthur Spöhel), and was the first expedition in the Everest area to include

Americans (Fred Beckey, George Bell, and Richard McGowan). The Nepalese liaison officer was

Gaya Nanda Vaidya. They were accompanied by 200 local porters and several climbing Sherpas.

After a brief look at the dangerous southern approaches of Lhotse Shar, they turned their attention,

during September and October, to the West Cwm and the northwest face of Lhotse, on which they

achieved an altitude of about 8,100 metres (26,600 ft). They were beaten back by unexpectedly

strong wind and cold temperatures. Under Schneider's direction they completed the first map of the

Everest area (1:50,000 photogrammetric). 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. [3]

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.[4] On May 12,

1970, Sepp Mayerl and Rolf Walter of Austria made the first ascent of Lhotse Shar.[5] 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.

The 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 Spurup to the South Col, while Lhotse climbers take a right

further up the Lhotse face. The last part to the summit leads through a narrow couloir until the

Lhotse main peak is reached.

As of December 2008, 371 climbers have summitted Lhotse and 20 have died.[6]