Lhotse | 2008 W Face

A USA expedition to Lhotse in 2008 via W Face, led by Brian Oestrike. Summit reached on 26th May 2008. 1 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6047
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID LHOT08116
Peak ID LHOT
Year 2008
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 W Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Brian Oestrike
Sponsor Hypoxico Lhotse Expedition 2008
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 126
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed True
Countries -
Approach Monjo->Tengboche->Dugla->Lobuche
Basecamp Date 2008-04-18
Summit Date 2008-05-26
Summit Time 0715
Summit Days 38
Total Days 39
Termination Date 2008-05-27
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8516
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 1
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 0
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired True
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(18/04,5350m),C1(23/04,5900m),C2(25/04,6500m),C3(12/05,7200m),C4(19/05,7850m),Smt(26/05)
Route Notes Oestrike left C4 at 1:20 am on 26 May, reached summit at 7:15 am, spent 20 minutes on summit. Descended to C4 at 9 am then to BC at 6:45 pm. The weather at the beginning was little overcast and windy. At the time of start of breaking trail on colouir the weather became clear, pretty good weather on the summit, beautiful view. Oestrike said that he was the first to reach summit, behind him was Miss Oh. Oestrike tried to summit without using oxygen on 23 May. He left C4 at 12:15 am on 22 May, when he reached at 8250m about 4 am Oestrike felt too cold and was very slow. Then he turned around to C4 where he reached at 5 am and continued to descend to C2 where he arrived at 9 am. Oestrike spent two nights at C2. Oestrike returned to Kathmandu on 29 will leave either 30 May or 1st June. Oestrike was on Lhotse ahead of Miss Oh. When Miss Oh reached summit she did not see any fresh foot prints on the summit. When she was at BC Miss Oh asked her cook Pemba to go to Oestrike to ask if he reached the summit. Oestrike told Pemba and Miss Oh that he did not reach summit. [Pemba confirmed what Oestrike told him at the BC. I met Pemba on 8 June.] Email from Brian Oestrike to Jeevan Shrestha - June 19, 2008 I appreciate your email, but I find it very concerning. I made a drastic mistake on my summit day and dropped my camera shortly after coming off the Lhotse Face. I reported this mistake to our base camp manager, Pertemba, even offering a reward to any person that could return the shirt which included an I-Pod, my camera, and a few other small things. Because it has not yet arrived I cannot offer any summit photos. I would however describe summit day in detail as their was in fact another climber who I passed that day. All of the details that I reported to you in Ktm pertaining to my departure from C4. To recap I left at around 1:15 or so. The night before I spoke with the Korean female (Oh Eun-Sun) climber who had arrived late to C4. I lived in Korea and am fairly fluent in Korean and so this was well understood because her English was also decent. I gave her some advice about leaving early because of the deep snow I had encountered while breaking trail on the 23rd. She seemed hesitant because she was obviously fatigued but after thinking about it for 30 minutes she decided to also go on the 26th and mentioned she would be starting very early. I suggested she might let me know when she left because we were the only two people climbing that day and neither of us had Sherpa support. So, she departed around 10:30 or so, but I do not recall exactly. When I did leave the tent I turned oxygen on for the first time of this expedition. I felt great and began moving quickly and comfortably from the start. I passed her where the couloir becomes fairly narrow, but not at its most narrow point. This took about 3 hours and was around 4:30. The most specific land mark of that point was that it was the first rock piton anchor and was the true beginning to the couloir. We shared a few words but nothing significant beyond "go ahead" as we were both focused on the task. Prior to me meeting her, she had rested at that point for at least 20 minutes obviously waiting for me to begin breaking trail. The rest of the climb I battled with the frozen rope and had issues with my jumar not quite biting the rope. I climbed the colouir which was straightforward except for the very narrow section which had exposed neck. The next section of the colouir remains steep but widens a bit. At one point I had to dig for the rope which I could not excavate because of deep snow. I soloed this for about 10 meters before clipping back in. Around this point you can see the summit which was closer than I expected. I knew it was the summit because Will Cross had mentioned it was the obvious left summit. It took me about an hour to finish with the snow and then the rock scrambling. The rock section was not as steep as I expected and only the last 10-15 minutes required decent crampons tecnique on the rock. The summit itself was a bit disappointing because the top anchors were about 3-5 meters in distance from the summit. The summit had two significant anchors about the same elevation but approximately 1.5-2m apart. I utilized this to anchor my bag and camera for the few photos I took with Everest as a background. This location was not exactly comfortable and so I began my descent within 15 minutes. I then stopped after descending for about 15 minutes to a more comfortable place for more photos. I should also note that there were prayer flags on the summit stretching for a few meters just below the drop off into the abyss. I then descended for another 15 minutes before coming across Oh Eun-Sun. This was just before the vantage point of the summit. She was obviously fatigued and I had never seen someone breathing so hard. I told her I was jealous that she was so close without oxygen, in Korean, and wished her luck. I was a bit concerned but with only one bottle of oxygen I was focused on descending as quickly as possible. I arrived back into C4 early, packed and descended to C2. This is when I lost my camera. Before realizing that it had fallen off my pack I began my descent back to BC. I reported my loss to the Asian Trekking BC manager Pertemba.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Asian Trekking
Commercial Route False
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2457341
Year 2008
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) w face

Members

1 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Brian Wilfred Oestrike M 1979 USA Leader Portland, Oregon Sales representative for altitude-training company Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.