Lhotse Tragedy

Publication Year: 1981.

Lhotse Tragedy. Nicolas Jaeger, the French climber who had such a remarkable record, particularly of solo ascents, disappeared on Lhotse on April 27. His original plan had been to make the first ascent of the 10,000-foot-high direct south face of Lhotse, supported by two friends, and then to climb the west ridge of Mount Everest solo. Jaeger set off from a bivouac he had made at the foot of the face of Lhotse with Georges Bettembourg and Nicholas Bérardini. He climbed the direct route to about 20,000 feet but returned because of bad conditions and avalanche danger. He then turned to the southeast ridge of Lhotse Shar, by which in 1970 Sepp Mayerl and Rolf Walter had climbed that lower summit of Lhotse. It was his intention to climb Lhotse Shar, continue over the unclimbed middle summit and reach the main summit before descending the normal route. He set out on this route on April 26 and was seen the next day at about 26,500 feet, having climbed with amazing speed to a point some 1000 feet below the summit of Lhotse Shar. Bad weather closed in for the next six days and he was never seen again. A helicopter search turned up no signs of him.