The Mountain Wall of Legends – Lhotse

Lhotse Mountain

Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world and the third highest in Nepal. It is also a part of the Mount Everest massif. The name Lhotse comes from Tibet meaning “the South Peak”. Lhotse Mountain comprises of three prominent peaks, the main summit which is 8,516 meters, the Lhotse East with elevations of 8,414 meters and the Lhotse Shar at 8,383 meters. Lhotse shares the same route as Mount Everest. It lies on the border between Tibet and Khumbu region and was first climbed by the members of the Swiss mountaineering and Expedition team, Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger in 1956. They were the first to climb the main summit of Lhotse. Sepp Mayerl and Rolf Walter of Austria were the first to ascent Lhotse Shar in 1970. Lhotse east however, remained unclimbed until 2001. Eugeny Vinogradsky, Sergei Timofeev, Alexei Bolotov and Petr Kuznetov later climbed it. The Lhotse Face is often described as ‘a wall of glacial blue ice’. Even a Swiss superstar climber Ueli Steck described the bustling atmosphere of Lhotse as ‘like Hollywood”. A glacier also originates from the Lhotse Shar and adjoins with Imja Glacier

Lhotse Mountain shares base camp with Everest

Lhotse Base Camp

Lhotse shares a base camp with Everest and follows the same climbing through the Khumbu icefall to the West and all the way up to Camp three on the Lhotse Face. By attempting Lhotse trekkers get a chance to experience the south side of Everest. They get the pleasure of seeing the amazing view of both, the highest peak and the fourth highest in the world. The sight no doubt would be enthralling. In a trek like this reaching the summit is not the aim, enjoying the whole experience is.