Asia, Nepal, Lobuje East

Publication Year: 1985.

Lobuje East. We reached our high camp of 17,000 feet on April 19. On the 20th I soloed P 5551 (18,212 feet), which lies a mile south of Lobuje East, for a better look at our chosen southeast-face route on Lobuje East. Bad weather forced us to remain in camp until April 25. That morning found Sherpa Ang Gyalzen and me working our way up the southeast face. It began to snow at ten o’clock. We summited (6119 meters, 20,075 feet) at 11:30 A.M., descended to camp by one o’clock and then to the village of Pheriche. Our third member, Len Torobin, could not go beyond high camp because of an ear infection. The Sherpas and the Nepalese authorities state that ours was a first ascent, but Japanese led by Yoshihiro Hayata climbed the peak in 1979.*

Lawrence Nielson

*George Bell has cleared up details about what he and Fred Beckey climbed in 1955. They climbed the southeast face of Lobuje East but did not go to the highest summit. Bell states, “We climbed the east peak of Lobuje East, not the west peak as stated in the 1956 A.A.J. account. The real summit tower is some ten meters higher and 200 meters west of where we got.”—Editor.