The Lohtse-Everest Traverse: Kazakh National Team Tries to Up the Ante

February 26, 2008

ExplorersWeb is reporting today that the Kazakh National Team is planning on trying to do an almost impossible feat: The Lhotse-Everest Traverse.

From ExplorersWeb:

He climbed 7, 8000ers with Messner and skied down Everest, but says that his traverse of the two Gasherbrums sticks out most. “This level of difficulty can be upped only through the Everest-Lhotse traverse,” Hans Kammerlander told PlanetMountain, “it would be the next step, perhaps a thing for the next generation.”

That next generation is coming sooner, rather than later.

Many of us who follow the action on Mt. Everest are pretty familiar with Lhotse as well. They stand side-by-side. The world’s 4th largest with the world’s LARGEST. Each on their own conjure up any given man’s survival instinct. They have each been summited alone.

Never together.

The Kazakh National Team will be attempting their final stage in collecting their 14, 8,000 meter peaks. Their goal has been ongoing for more than a decade, and finally, Lhotse represents the last of this journey.

Up Lhotse, Down Lhotse–Up Everest, Down Everest..one fell swoop. One straight line. One final push. No points crossed twice, with merely a couple of days seperating the two peaks.

Can it be done?

Many of the climbers on the Kazakh National Team are familiar to us. Many are considered some of the world’s most accredited and distinguished climbers.

For a full list of the team, the full plan of this expedition and some more insight into the reasonings behind this mega-climb, I suggest you head on over to ExWeb and take a look at the article they have provided today.

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