Lhotse Shar is a subsidiary mountain of

Lhotse Lhotse ( ne, ल्होत्से ; , ''lho tse'', ) is the fourth highest mountain in the world at , after Mount Everest, K2, and Kangchenjunga. The main summit is on the border between Tibet Autonomous Region of China and the Khumbu ...

, at high. It was first climbed by

Sepp Mayerl Sepp Mayerl, also known as Blasl-Sepp (14 April 1937 − 28 July 2012) was an Austrian mountaineer. Mayerl was born on 14 April 1937 as the youngest of seven children into a farmer's family in the Tyrolean village of Göriach near Dölsach. ...

and Rolf Walter on 12 May 1970.

Climbing routes and dangers

Lhotse Shar is located far from the main summit's standard route of ascent via the

South Col The South Col is a sharp-edged col between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the highest and fourth-highest mountains in the world, respectively. The South Col is typically swept by high winds, leaving it free of significant snow accumulation. Since 195 ...

. As Lhotse's central summits are themselves extremely difficult climbs and make a traverse to the Shar along the main ridge impractical, most climbers instead opt for the most direct route of ascent, up Lhotse's south face. This exceptionally steep and hazardous route has been the site of many fatalities; indeed, of Lhotse's documented deaths as of 2021, a third (11 of 31) have occurred on Lhotse Shar. It has the highest fatality rate of all principal or secondary

eight-thousander The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises eight-thousanders as the 14 mountains that are more than in height above sea level, and are considered to be sufficiently independent of neighbouring peaks. There is no ...

summits – for every two people who summit the mountain, one person dies attempting to. The mountain's extreme height further compounds the danger: At 8,383 meters above sea level, it is 292 meters (958 feet) higher than

Annapurna Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficu ...

I Main, the next-deadliest summit of the eight-thousanders, and well into the

Death zone In mountaineering, the death zone refers to altitudes above a certain point where the pressure of oxygen is Effects of high altitude on humans, insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span. This point is generally tagged as , less ...

, greatly increasing the risk of altitude sickness for climbers.

Incidents

* On 27 April 1980,

Nicolas Jaeger Nicolas Jaeger (20 October 1946 – 27 April 1980) was a French physician and alpinist. Early life Jaeger was born on 20 October 1946 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, the son of photographer Janine Niépce. He made more than 100 solo ascen ...

was seen for the last time at altitude on Lhotse Shar, and is presumed dead. Jaeger was attempting a traverse from the Shar to Lhotse Main. * 27 September 1987 saw the single deadliest day on Lhotse Shar, as four Spanish climbers fell 1,500 meters to their deaths in an avalanche. The partial recovery of the team's remains by British climbers Alan and Adrian Burgess is recounted in

Jon Krakauer Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of bestselling non-fiction books—'' Into the Wild''; ''Into Thin Air''; ''Under the Banner of Heaven''; and '' Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat ...

's 1990 compendium '' Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains''.

Eiger Dreams ''Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains'' is a non-fiction collection of article (publishing), articles and essays by Jon Krakauer on mountaineering and rock climbing. Eleven out of twelve of the chapters were initially published between ...

References

Eight-thousanders of the Himalayas Mountains of the Province No. 1 Mountains of Tibet {{Nepal-mountain-stub