Lhotse | 2014 W Face

A USA expedition to Lhotse in 2014 via W Face, led by Cleo Weidlich. Summit reached on 17th May 2014. 5 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 8501
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID LHOT14103
Peak ID LHOT
Year 2014
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 W Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Cleo Weidlich
Sponsor Weidlich Lhotse Expedition 2014
Success 1 False
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries Hungary
Approach -
Basecamp Date 2014-04-28
Summit Date 2014-05-17
Summit Time -
Summit Days 19
Total Days 27
Termination Date 2014-05-25
Termination Reason 5
Termination Notes Abandoned at 8000m due to continuous rockfall
High Point (m) 8000
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 4
Summit Members 0
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 1
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(28/04,5340m),C1(30/04),C2(02/05),C3(14/05),xxx(17/05,8000m)
Route Notes Cleo checked into the Hyatt Hotel in Kathmandu on 17 April, then flew to Lukla to spend a few days (20-24 April) visiting Sherpa friends in Thamo village. She knew nothing about the fatal icefall disaster of the 18th. A lama came from a village above Thamo to bless her climb, and he told her to go to the mountain. Cleo reached BC on 28 April with her regular Sherpa, Pema Tshering. Now they then learned about the Sherpas' deaths in the Icefall. The following day a small group of Sherpa agitators enforced a boycott of climbing into and thus above the Icefall up Everest and Lhotse. They threatened Pema with broken arms and legs and his home being burned down if he violated their boycott. On 29th he went to SPCC, whose "Icefall doctors" make the route through the Icefall, installing ladders and ropes along the route, and then Pema left, presumably after being informed that the Icefall route would no longer exist. On 30 April Cleo went alone through the Icefall (with ladders still in place) to C1, where she left some gear. The next day, 1 May, she returned to BC, the same day the ladders were removed. A very angry Cleo posted a defiant statement on Facebook. "This is just to let you know that my climb on the Everest massif will continue with or without ladders. I have climbed some of the world's most dangerous mountains without them and this mountain is, actually, very tame compared with the likes of Nanga Parbat, Annapurna I and Kangchenjunga. I refuse to give in to the pressures of the Everest mafia. I'd like to decide for myself when I have reached my limits." So on the 2 May at 1:00 am, Cleo packed up and called up Fishtail Helicopters to fly her to C1. She collected her gear and the same chopper then flew her, still alone, to C2 in the Western Cwm. On the 3rd, she searched for a route to the bergschrund, the crevasse between the Cwm and the beginning of the Lhotse face, and on the 4th and the 5th she managed to make her way to the bergschrund past crevasses and an ice ridge making use of old ropes still in place from previous expeditions. Next she began to reconnoitre Lhotse's West Face. Meanwhile the American embassy became aware of the fact that one of its citizens was attempting all alone to climb Lhotse against the wishes of the Sherpa boycott organizers and asked Fishtail Helicopters about her. A few days later, Fishtail flew Pema to C2, where he joined Cleo on 12 May. On 14 May, Cleo and Pema established C3 on the Lhotse face with the aid of old Chinese ropes. The next day Pema fell into one of the many crevasses on the face, but he was not injured, and they continued on up. Although she now had a Sherpa with her, she went to ask for more help with fixing the difficult Lhotse face route at Jing Wang's camp, where the cook tent was occupied by some of Jing Wang's Sherpas. They declined to be of assistance. Jing Wang said that "when were at C3, I saw her camp; at that time it was already ragged from wind blowing and wearing (it) down. We were quite concerned that her tent would be blown away by the wind. The next morning she departed first; when we passed by her later on, we exchanged a few words, 'be safe, kind of thing', not a lot of communication." That was the sole encounter between the only foreigners on the mountain. On 17 May, Cleo and Pema were at about 8000m on the face and set about digging a platform for their tent for C4. During the digging, they found the body of a Taiwanese climber who had died the previous year. They cancelled their digging because of the constant rockfall and retreated to C3 and on the following day to C2. Now there was very strong (perhaps 90km/her) wind, which forced them to stay pinned down in C3 for four days. On the 22nd, they decided to try to resume climbing once again and reached C3. The rockfall, crashing down the couloir and threatening Cleo's helipad, drove them back to C2 on the 23rd. Finally they gave up in the face of such serious continous falling rock. They were not bothered by much snow on the face, which was mostly exposed rock or rock covered by ice. It was the falling rock that stopped them. On 23 May, Cleo concluded that they would never be able to claim the summit. With chopper flights required and no summit in sight, "it was not worth it" to continue. On 25 May, they flew from C2 to BC to Lukla by their final helicopter flight and from there to Kathmandu. Sherpa: Pema Tshering Sherpa, 16/6/70, Mathilow, Walung, Makalu-9, Lhotse X3, Makalu X9, Dhaulagiri I X4, Kangch X2, Annapurna I X2
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Asian Trekking
Commercial Route False
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2459574
Year 2014
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) w face

Members

5 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Cleonice Pacheco (Cleo) Weidlich F 1964 USA/Brazil Leader Palo Alto, California Nuclear engineer Details Other expeditions
Pema Tshering Sherpa M 1970 Nepal H-A Worker Walung, Makalu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Alexander Stanislavovich Goldfarb-Rumyantzev M 1963 USA Climber Brookline, Massachusetts Physician Details Other expeditions
Zoltan Gabor Szlanko M 1968 Hungary Climber Szolnok, Hungary Manager of company working on high buildings Details Other expeditions
John Christopher Gray M 1968 USA Climber Millbrae, California Bicycle mechanic Details Other expeditions

References

1 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
LHOT14103 - - http://4bakancs.com/tagged/szzl14 - - -