Asia, Nepal, Lhotse Shar, Ascent

Publication Year: 1999.

Lhotse Shar, Ascent. On Lhotse Shar, the 8400-meter eastern summit of the Lhotse massif next to Everest, a team of 15 Russian climbers led by Vladimir Savkov sent four men (Alexandre Foigt, Evgueni Vinogradski, Gleb Sokolov, Sergei Timofeev) to the top on November 1. But they were forced to abandon what Vinogradski said was their “dream” of traversing from it to the middle summit of the massif. This middle peak (8410m) is the highest point on earth not yet touched by man.

The Russian team was not the first to scale Lhotse Shar with the intention of using it as a stepping stone to the middle summit, only to find when they were on the eastern summit that they were too tired and unprepared for the very difficult traverse at very high altitude, and none of them made an actual move to do so. The Russians this autumn looked at the horrifyingly difficult ridge they would have to move across and decided the better approach would be from Lhotse’s main summit.

Elizabeth Hawley