Lhotse

Lhotse, at 8,516 metres, is the world's fourth-highest mountain — and the closest neighbour Everest has. The two giants share a base camp, an icefall and most of a climbing route, separated only by the high saddle of the South Col. For trekkers in the Khumbu, Lhotse's vast wall of ice is one of the defining sights of the walk to Everest Base Camp.

The name: Everest's "South Peak"

Lhotse means "South Peak" in Tibetan, a plain statement of its position immediately south of Everest. Early surveyors did not even grant it a name of its own, logging it simply as E1 — a satellite of its taller neighbour. Mountaineers now treat it very differently: Lhotse is a giant in its own right, one of the cluster of Khumbu eight-thousanders, and its colossal south face — a wall of rock and ice rising more than three kilometres — ranks among the steepest and most formidable big faces in the Himalaya.

Height, rank and location

At 8,516 metres (27,940 feet), Lhotse ranks fourth in the world, behind Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga. It stands at roughly 27.96° N, 86.93° E on the Nepal–Tibet border, at the head of the glaciated valley above Gorak Shep inside Sagarmatha National Park. From the valley floor much of the mountain hides behind Everest's long west shoulder and the Nuptse ridge, but its face and summit come fully into view as the trail climbs. Lhotse also carries two subsidiary summits, Lhotse Middle and Lhotse Shar, both above 8,000 metres — Lhotse Middle was not climbed until 2001, making it one of the last named 8,000-metre summits on Earth to be reached.

Part of the Everest massif

What makes Lhotse unusual among the eight-thousanders is how completely it is entwined with Everest. The South Col, a wind-scoured saddle at about 7,900 metres, joins the two peaks, and everything below it is shared ground: the same Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier, the same passage through the Khumbu Icefall, the same walk up the Western Cwm. Above the Cwm rises the Lhotse Face, the great sweep of hard glacial ice where Everest climbers cut their Camp 3 into the slope. High on the face the routes finally divide — Everest-bound climbers traverse left toward the South Col, while Lhotse climbers continue straight up into the narrow couloir that splits the summit wall.

First ascent and climbing history

The first ascent came on 18 May 1956, by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger of a Swiss expedition — a team that, in the same season, also put climbers on top of Everest. The standard route today still follows their general line: up the Everest approach to Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face, then a high camp on the upper face before the steep Lhotse Couloir leading to the summit. Because so much of the route overlaps with Everest, some mountaineers attempt both peaks in a single season, and Lhotse sees far fewer crowds than its neighbour. The mountain's south face is another story entirely: first climbed only in 1990, that three-kilometre wall above the Chukhung valley remains one of mountaineering's great challenges.

How to see Lhotse without climbing

You do not need a climbing permit to enjoy Lhotse — the Khumbu's trekking trails serve it up from several angles:

• The Everest Base Camp trek. The classic EBC route walks directly beneath the massif, with the Everest–Lhotse–Ama Dablam skyline appearing from the ridgelines above Namche on the way up. The shorter Everest View trek reaches the same lower viewpoints.
• Kala Patthar. From the famous viewpoint of Kala Patthar above Gorak Shep, Lhotse stands shoulder to shoulder with Everest at the head of the valley.
• The Chukhung valley. Trekkers who branch east from Dingboche toward Chukhung and Island Peak walk right under Lhotse's stupendous south face — the closest a walker can get to the mountain, with Ama Dablam behind.
• Gokyo Ri. From the Gokyo Ri viewpoint to the west, Lhotse forms part of a panorama that takes in several eight-thousanders at once, including Cho Oyu.
• From the air. An Everest mountain flight circles the massif for those short on time.

Climbing Lhotse today

Lhotse is climbed from the Nepal side, almost always in the spring season, on a royalty permit issued through Nepal's Department of Tourism — fees are lower than Everest's and rules change periodically, so check current climbing permit costs before planning. Expeditions run four to six weeks and cost materially less than an Everest expedition, which is one reason experienced climbers choose it as a quieter alternative on the same terrain. For the wider context of Nepal's climbing scene, see mountaineering in Nepal.

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