Lhotse | 2021 W Face

A France expedition to Lhotse in 2021 via W Face, led by Mehdi Van Haver. Summit reached on 10th May 2021. 2 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 10636
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID LHOT21120
Peak ID LHOT
Year 2021
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 W Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality France
Leaders Mehdi Van Haver
Sponsor French Lhotse Expedition 2021
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 -
Approach Lukla->Namche->Lobuche->BC
Basecamp Date 2021-04-21
Summit Date 2021-05-10
Summit Time -
Summit Days 19
Total Days 25
Termination Date 2021-05-16
Termination Reason 14
Termination Notes Abandoned at 6400m due to altercation with his Sherpa
High Point (m) 7500
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 1
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(21/04,5300m),C2(27/04,6400m),C3(09/05,7200m),xxx(10/05,7500m)
Route Notes Van Haver intended to climb Lhotse without oxygen and a minimum of assistance. He had taken a light paraglider with him in case of an opportunity would have occurred to fly from the saddle down to the top. Knowing it was too hard to take off alone, he vaguely planned to ask his Sherpa and others to help if the day would ever happen. Eventually the paraglider came up maximum to C2 and Van Haver never flew with it. First of all, Van Haver was here to try Lhotse without oxygen. Van Haver had hired Pemba Dorje Sherpa (speed climber), who was informed about his flying idea from the beginning of the expedition. Despite that both Pemba Dorje and Van Haver knew it wasn't authorized to fly, Pemba Dorje wasn't vindicative or frontally forbidding it either (“we will see”). Pemba Dorje came back to BC from his successful Everest summit (12 May) on the 14 May. During this evening, a dispute occurred, when at some stage Van Haver said he didn't need Sherpa assistance until C4 (he was in fact climbing on his own since the beginning of the expedition, so far up to 7500m). A few similarly originated little frictions had already occured before, maybe worsened by Pemba Dorje's rough English knowledge. For instance when Van Haver wanted to walk up to C2 alone, Pemba Dorje had told him the camp was provided with food: when Van Haver arrived up there there actually wasn't any. Whatever the exact origin of the dispute, on the day after it occured (15 May), Pemba Dorje called the liaison officer, revealing the paragliding “plan”. Pemba Dorje and other Sherpas came in front of the Van Haver tent, shouting and agressively threatening him sometimes with rocks (equivalent to the “Everest fight” of Simone Moro with the Sherpas). Then the army came and took his passport. Ministry police contacted him, asking him to come back to KTM with a 6:30 am helicopter flight on the next day. Nims Dai and Dawa Sherpa tried to intervene in his favour in vain. Van Haver left BC on 16 May by foot, reaching Namche Bazar on that day. On 17 May he reached Lukla, where he got blocked 2 days (18-19 May 18), eventually reaching KTM on 20 May. Van Haver came to the Tourism Police, which gave him back his Passport. Since he hadn't done anything wrong (nor actually flew from anywhere), the police told him he wouldn't be banished from Nepal nor had to pay any penalty, but he was advised not to go back to BC this time. Anyway from now his schedule was getting too narrow: he would have needed to come back to BC, re-acclimatize and hire a new Sherpa in order to be able to try the next summit window. And mostly the game was not anymore a happy one in such context. Van Haver waited for his gear (Camera, Go-Pro, fur sleeping back, tent, etc., about 8000 Euros in total) to be brought back down from C2 and C3. Van Haver was disappointed by the human behaviour rather than not having tried for the summit. He was stunned by the mountain beauty, but also amazed by the Disneyland atmosphere reigning on the normal route, where “ordinary people act as if they were extraordinary people”.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Himalayan Shepherd (Expedition Himalaya pmt)
Commercial Route False
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2464651
Year 2021
Summit Success False
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) w face

Members

2 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Mehdi Mikhael Van Haver M 1989 France Leader Grenoble, Isere, France Oil and gas engineer Details Other expeditions
Pemba Dorje Sherpa M 1977 Nepal H-A Worker Beding, Dolakha - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.