Lhotse summit summary

An early morning call from BC by Budhi Magar (our expedition Cook) "dai,   Dipankar, Rajiv,  Nga Tashi Sherpa and Karma Sherpa summit Mt. Lhotse at 07:00 a.m. We just had communication. They are all in good condition and will be heading back after staying for 15-20 minutes. They will contact again after they will reach last camp - communicate by walkie-talkie from Summit to BC.

Lhotse stands at 8516m, making it the fourth highest mountain in the world. It is situated at the border of Tibet and Nepal. Its long east-west crest is located immediately south of Mount Everest, and the summits of the two mountains are connected by the Souath Col, a vertical ridge that never drops below 8,000m. Lhotse has three summits: Lhotse Main 8516m, Lhotse Shar 8383m and Lhotse Middle or East 8413m. 

Dipankar Ghosh and Rajiv is the first civilian to climb Mt. Lhotse from West Bengal. Lhotse is the Last year they summit Mt. Everest with Karma and Furba Shrpa. Nga Tashi climbed Mt Kanchenjunga with Basanta Singha Royand Debasish Biswas last year – which is the first successful West Bengal Kanchenjunga expeditions.

A team of 03 member from west Bengal Dipankar Ghosh, Rajiv Bhattarchary and Soma bhattacharjee set for Mt. Lhotse expedition on April 05, 2012 from Kathmandu and reached Base camp on April 15, 2012. The team after setup all the camps and after undergoing successful acclimatization climb, planned to climb Mt. Lhotse on May 20, 2012. They reached last camp on May 19, but had to retreat back to Camp II due to high wind and unsafe route condition of Mt Lhotse. After a rest of two days in Camp II, team carry on with second plan to summit on May 25, 2012. Three of them along with their 03 Sheraps (Karma, Nga Tashi and Dorjee Sherpa) set off for Camp III on May 23. Soma Bhattarcharya on May 24 had to quit the climb due to her health condition and climbed down to Camp II with Dorjee Sherpa. However, Soma Bhattarchaya is probably the first woman from Bengali Community to reach 8000m and spend a night at last camp of Mt. Lhotse.

Dipankar, Rajiv, Karma and Nga Tashi continue with their climb to last camp on May 24 after few hours of rest at last camp, they carry on with climb and reached the summit of Mt. Lhotse at 07:00 a.m. on May 25. All team members are safe and heading back to Base camp, they will come back to base camp on May 27.  By Loben Sherpa – Expedition Director Loben Expedition, Kathmandu