Not only on Mount Everest, but also on neighboring 8,516-meter-high Lhotse, the normal route is now secured to the summit with fixed ropes. According to the Nepalese expedition operator Seven Summit Treks, the seven-member team in charge of it, led by Sona Sherpa (he was among the ten Nepalese who succeeded in the first winter ascent of K2 in 2021), reached the highest point today. It was the first summit success of this spring season on Lhotse. Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism has issued 127 permits for foreign mountaineers to climb the fourth highest mountain on earth this spring.
“A lot going on”
Meanwhile, the first major summit wave on Mount Everest is expected to begin tomorrow, Thursday. “There’s really a lot going on here,” Gerhard Osterbauer, an Austrian summit aspirant informed me today by phone from Camp 3 at about 7,200 meters. He said his team wanted to climb up to the South Col tomorrow and then start towards the summit Friday night. Gerhard also met the German professional climber David Göttler – in the descent: “He climbed up to just below the South Col to acclimatize further.” David still wants to wait with his summit attempt without bottled oxygen – until there are less commercial teams on the way.
