Why Lhotse is famous
Only Everest (8,849 m), K2 (8,611 m) and Kangchenjunga (8,586 m) are higher than Lhotse's 8,516 m. Yet from most directions the mountain hides behind its neighbours: Everest blocks it from the north, Nuptse and the long ridges of the Khumbu from the south-west. With Everest to the north and Nuptse (7,855 m) to the west it closes the horseshoe of the Everest massif around the Western Cwm. The main ridge carries four tops: Lhotse Main (8,516 m), Lhotse Middle, also called Lhotse East or Central I (8,414 m), Lhotse Central II (8,372 m) and Lhotse Shar (8,383 m).
Three things make the mountain special for climbers. Its western flank is part of the most popular route on Everest, so thousands of people have stood on Lhotse's slopes without aiming for its summit. Its south face is one of the biggest and most dangerous walls on Earth. And Lhotse Middle was for decades the highest unclimbed named point in the world, listed as such in the Guinness Book of Records until a Russian team reached it on 23 May 2001. Lhotse also has the fewest routes of any eight-thousander: as of 2016 there were three on the main summit, two on Lhotse Shar and one on Lhotse Middle.
Where it is and how to get there
The main summit lies on the Nepal–China border in the Mahalangur Himal, about 3 km south of Everest. The Nepalese side belongs to Sagarmatha National Park (Solukhumbu district), a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979; the Tibetan side is in the Qomolangma National Nature Reserve. All normal ascents start in Nepal.
The approach is the same as for Everest: a flight to Lukla (2,860 m), since 2024 mostly from Manthali (Ramechhap), three to four hours by road from Kathmandu, then about a week on foot via Namche Bazaar (3,440 m), Tengboche (3,870 m), Dingboche or Pheriche (about 4,250 m), Lobuche (4,930 m) and Gorak Shep (5,160 m) to base camp on the Khumbu Glacier (about 5,364 m). Lhotse climbers share base camp with Everest teams.
Trekkers see the mountain well from the ridge at Tengboche, from Kala Patthar, from the village of Chhukhung in the Imja valley, which sits in a ring of peaks with the south face of Lhotse at its head, from the Cho La pass and from Gokyo Ri (5,357 m), one of the few viewpoints with four eight-thousanders in sight: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu.
The normal route: west face and the Reiss Couloir
The standard route is the line of the first ascent. It follows Everest's South Col route through the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1 (about 6,065 m) and Camp 2 (about 6,400–6,500 m) at the head of the Western Cwm. Above rises the Lhotse Face, a wall of glacial blue ice about 1,125 m high, angled at 40–50° with occasional bulges of up to 80°. Sherpa teams fix ropes on it every season, and climbers move up them with jumars. Camp 3 sits on small ledges cut into the face at about 7,200–7,400 m.
Above Camp 3 the routes split at the rock band called the Yellow Band. Everest climbers traverse left over the Geneva Spur to the South Col; Lhotse climbers continue straight up the face on 50–60° snow to a high camp at about 7,800–7,850 m. From there the last 300 m or so lead into the Reiss Couloir (also called the Lhotse Couloir), a narrow gully filled with rock and snow, only about 3 m wide in places. It is the crux of the climb: steep mixed ground where climbers stem between rock walls, exposed to stones knocked down from above. The summit is a small rock block often capped with snow. Most teams descend to Camp 4 or Camp 2 the same day.
Plan on about a week to reach base camp, five to six weeks on the mountain for acclimatisation rotations and waiting for weather, and a few days back to Kathmandu. The route is considered of medium difficulty among the eight-thousanders, harder than Cho Oyu and less committing than K2. Some climbers combine Lhotse with Everest from the South Col; doing both summits within 24 hours is known as the "Double Crown".
The south face
On the south side Lhotse and Lhotse Shar drop more than 3,000 m to the Lhotse Glacier; one estimate gives a rise of 3.2 km over a horizontal distance of only 2.25 km, the steepest slope of such size anywhere. A Japanese expedition led by Ryohei Uchida made the first attempt in 1973, Reinhold Messner tried in 1975, and in 1981 a Yugoslav team led by Aleš Kunaver reached the top of the face without the summit. On 24 October 1989 the Pole Jerzy Kukuczka, the second person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, fell to his death at about 8,200 m when a second-hand rope broke.
On 24 April 1990 the Slovenian Tomo Česen announced a solo ascent of the face, climbed largely at night by the light of a full moon to avoid stonefall. He could not produce clear proof; members of the Soviet expedition that came that autumn argued his route would have been impossible, Messner also expressed doubts, and the climb is still treated with scepticism. On 16 October 1990, in severe weather and with bottled oxygen, the Soviet team led by A. Shevchenko put Sergey Bershov and Vladimir Karataev on the summit by a new line up the face. Messner had called the wall "the route of the 21st century". The icy north-east face above the Kangshung Glacier remains unclimbed, as does a traverse of all three main summits.
Trekking for non-climbers
Lhotse itself has no walking route, but the Everest Base Camp trek takes you to its foot. Allow 12–16 days return from Lukla with acclimatisation days in Namche and Dingboche. Lodges (teahouses) line the trail, so no tent is needed. To see the south face, spend a night in Chhukhung, the last lodges at the head of the Imja valley, or join a guided ascent of Island Peak (Imja Tse, 6,189 m), whose summit looks straight across at Lhotse and Lhotse Shar. Strong trekkers link these valleys via the Cho La (5,420 m) and the Gokyo lakes.
Permits, costs and rules
According to Nepal's Department of Tourism (Facts and Figures 2026), foreign climbers pay a royalty of US$3,000 in spring (March–May), US$1,500 in autumn (September–November) and US$750 in winter or summer, the standard rate for eight-thousanders other than Everest and Manaslu. Each expedition deposits US$3,000 for garbage management, refunded after a debriefing in Kathmandu. In the Khumbu teams must report to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee in Namche, every climber and staff member must bring at least 8 kg of rubbish back to base camp, a government liaison officer accompanies the team, and satellite phones need official permission. In spring 2025 Nepal issued 127 Lhotse permits to 12 teams. A guided expedition costs many times the royalty once Sherpa support, oxygen and logistics are added; Lhotse is often sold together with Everest.
Trekkers pay the Sagarmatha National Park entry fee (NPR 3,000 for foreigners in 2026) and buy a local permit from the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality. The Nepal Tourism Board lists the Everest region among the areas where a licensed guide has been required since 31 March 2023; check how the rule is enforced when you book.
When to go and weather
Almost all ascents are made in spring, when Lhotse teams climb alongside Everest expeditions and the ropes on the Lhotse Face are already fixed; in 2025 the summits recorded by the Department of Tourism fell between 8 and 27 May. Autumn is quieter, colder and less stable as winter approaches. The monsoon brings heavy snow from June to September. For trekking, October–November and March–May are the main seasons; winter is clear but very cold, and some higher lodges close.
Water
On the trek every village has teahouses selling boiled water, tea and bottled water; prices rise with altitude, and there is no plastic recycling in the Khumbu, so carry reusable bottles and treat tap or stream water with a filter, UV pen or tablets. There are no teahouses on the climbs from the Dudh Kosi bridges to Namche and from Phunki Thanga to Tengboche, so fill up before them. At base camp expedition kitchens supply water from the glacier; above it all water comes from melting snow on stoves, which takes time and fuel. Plan on three to four litres a day at altitude.
Mobile coverage and internet
The trek is better connected than its remoteness suggests. Ncell built a 3G network along the route in 2010 with a base station near base camp at about 5,200 m, and Nepal Telecom SIM cards are generally considered better in remote areas. Everest Link runs a solar-powered Wi-Fi network between Lukla and base camp, with prepaid cards sold in lodges; lodges also charge for Wi-Fi and battery charging. Expect no reliable signal on the Lhotse Face or in the couloir. Expeditions need official permission to use satellite phones. In an emergency call 1144 (Tourist Police) or 100 (Police); the Himalayan Rescue Association runs an aid post in Pheriche (4,250 m) and the Everest ER clinic at base camp during the spring season.
Altitude, dangers and safety
The objective dangers are those of Everest's route plus the couloir: collapsing seracs in the Khumbu Icefall, which killed 44 people between 1953 and 2016; falls on the steep, hard ice of the Lhotse Face, where a slip off the fixed rope is rarely survivable; and rockfall in the Reiss Couloir, where several parties often climb one above the other. Most deaths on Lhotse are caused by falls. The Himalayan Database counted about 600 summits and 15 deaths through autumn 2014; by December 2025 Nepal's Department of Tourism had recorded 1,396 summiteers. Lhotse was not climbed at all in 2014, 2015 and 2016 because of a series of incidents, among them the 2014 avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall that killed 16 Sherpas and the earthquake of 2015. Most climbers use bottled oxygen; about a quarter of summiteers have climbed without it. Acclimatise slowly: above 3,000 m add no more than 300–500 m of sleeping altitude per day on the trek.
History and name
The name Lhotse, "South Peak" (lho "south", tse "peak"), was given by the British Everest reconnaissance of 1921 for the mountain's position relative to Everest; it is a literal translation from English and not a name known to have been used by Tibetans. The first serious attempt came in 1955, when an international expedition led by Norman Dyhrenfurth reached about 8,100 m on the north-west face and its cartographer Erwin Schneider produced the first 1:50,000 map of the Everest area.
On 18 May 1956 the Swiss Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger reached the summit from a top camp near the Geneva Spur, members of an expedition led by Albert Eggler that also made the second and third ascents of Everest a few days later. Luchsinger had been struck by appendicitis on the approach and recovered in a room lent by the lama of Tengboche monastery. The mountain then waited 21 years for a second ascent: on 8 May 1977 a German expedition put Urkien Tshering Sherpa, the first Nepali on top, on the summit, and its member Michael Dacher became the first person to climb above 8,500 m without supplementary oxygen. On 16 October 1986 Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander topped out on Lhotse, which made Messner the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders. Krzysztof Wielicki made the only winter ascent of the main summit by the normal route on 31 December 1988, the Frenchwoman Chantal Mauduit became the first woman on top on 10 May 1996, and on 30 September 2018 Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison made the first ski descent from the summit.
Interesting facts
- Fritz Luchsinger, who made the first ascent, disappeared in 1983 on Shishapangma, the lowest of the eight-thousanders.
- The fastest Double Crown on record belongs to Mingma Dorchi Sherpa, who in 2019 went from one summit to the other in 6 hours 1 minute with oxygen.
- Before 2001 Lhotse Middle had defeated every attempt; the Russians Yevgeny Vinogradsky, Sergei Timofeev and Gleb Sokolov became, at the time, the only people to have stood on all three summits of the massif.
- In May 2026 the Polish ski mountaineer Bartek Ziemski climbed Lhotse without bottled oxygen or Sherpa support and skied down from the top.
- Lhotse's prominence of about 610 m is lower than that of many small hills elsewhere, yet the mountain is officially an independent eight-thousander.
FAQ
How high is Lhotse? The main summit is 8,516 m, the fourth-highest point on Earth. Lhotse Middle reaches 8,414 m and Lhotse Shar 8,383 m.
How long does it take to climb Lhotse? About seven weeks from Kathmandu: a week's trek to base camp, five to six weeks on the mountain and a few days back. The summit push from base camp usually takes five to seven days.
How difficult is Lhotse? It is a serious high-altitude climb of medium difficulty among the eight-thousanders. The Khumbu Icefall and Lhotse Face are climbed on fixed ropes; the final couloir is steep, narrow, rocky and exposed to stonefall. Climbers need previous experience at 7,000–8,000 m.
How much does a Lhotse permit cost? As of 2026 the royalty is US$3,000 per foreign climber in spring, US$1,500 in autumn and US$750 in winter or summer, plus a US$3,000 refundable garbage deposit per expedition and the national park fee.
Can I see Lhotse without climbing it? Yes. The Everest Base Camp trek ends at its foot, and Chhukhung, Island Peak, Kala Patthar and Gokyo Ri give the best views; Chhukhung looks straight at the south face.
Is there water on the way? Teahouses sell boiled and bottled water on the trek; treat any tap or stream water. Above base camp all water comes from melted snow.
Is there mobile coverage? Yes, on most of the trek: Ncell 3G reaches the base camp area and Everest Link Wi-Fi works in many lodges. High on the mountain only satellite phones, used with official permission, are reliable. Emergency numbers are 1144 and 100.
When is the best time to climb or visit Lhotse? Spring, with summits mostly in mid- to late May. For trekking, October–November and March–May.