Satish Lhotse 8516m expedition 2021 - Dream realized
Most the time I am in Base camp waiting for the good weather. I need lots patience at the same time around base lots fear about Covid and scared me. In my group also few people got Corana virus. Most I am in my tent just come out from my tent for quick meals. Morning I go for walk sometime Gorekchep, Pumori high camp and Pumori view point. After take rest movie time or read. It was tuff waiting longtime in the base camp. Finally I got a good weather report so my summit target is on 24 May. I was exciting and ready to leave……
After two weeks of waiting for the weather to clear, I start to leave camp 2 on 19 May midnight. Arrived camp 2 on 20 May. My health was on good condition. On 22 May I had a rest day at camp 2. On 22 May I made it to Camp 3 where he intended to spend the night. The plan was to climb to Camp 4 the following day, where I would spend another night, before attempting the treacherous 8,516m Peak that topped Lhotse - the world’s fourth tallest mountain. Lhotse sits just to the south of Everest, and is actually connected to the world’s tallest mountain by the windswept south col or ridge. Satish had been planning to climb Lhotse for over a year now, about the same amount of time that the COVID-19 virus had been plaguing the world. As one can guess, the virus hit Satish’s Nepal based expedition company particularly hard, and he hadn’t had work since Nepal first shut down in April 2020. Lhotse was his way of taking back control over his life and aspirations. Now, as he arrived at Camp 3, his dream of summiting the world’s fourth highest peak was balancing on a narrow precipice - literally.
The bad weather that seemed to have cleared was rolling in again. If Satish wanted to make the summit, he would have to start from Camp 3 instead of Camp 4. The new plan would add another 650m to his summit push. Determined, Satish mentally prepared himself in the one hour he could spare before starting to climb. When he left his tent he was hopeful but the extra vertical wasn’t the only challenge that he faced. With the quick decision to summit from Camp 3, Satish forgot to clip his glove to his jacket, and quickly lost it in the high winds on the steep face. Luckily, his climbing partner had an extra 5-finger summiting glove, allowing him to continue without fear of frostbite. Hands safely gloved, he found himself following other groups attempting the summit. One of them dropped an oxygen tank, sending the equivalent of a missile hurtling towards Satish. It missed him by two feet.
The closer Satish was to the summit, the faster the winds became. Battling 30 knot gusts, Satish finally made it. But the triumph was brief. He quickly started to descend with an eye starting to pierce with pain from the side wind. A few minutes after leaving the summit, Satish came across the body of someone that had perished during their climb - an ominous sign for what lay ahead. An hour before leaving the death zone, Satish started feeling tired and lethargic. His oxygen meter indicated that the bottle was still 30% full, so he continued on. But his condition only worsened. It wasn’t until he arrived back at Camp 3 did he realize that his meter was broken and did not fall below 30% - he had walked that last hour without oxygen. When he finally laid down in his tent to rest, he only felt the pain in his eye. Instead of staying in Camp 3 that night, Satish packed up his things and headed for Camp 2 where he could get proper medical care. Eventually he made it down the mountain, his dream realized..
Namaste and thank you very much. This end of my Lhotse journeys.
