Lhotse | 1998 W Face

A USA expedition to Lhotse in 1998 via W Face, led by Andrew Lapkass. Summit reached on 18th May 1998. 7 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 2601
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID LHOT98102
Peak ID LHOT
Year 1998
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 W Face
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Andrew Lapkass
Sponsor Himalayan Guides Lhotse Expedition
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 46th dispute,47-48th
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries Argentina, Canada, Latvia, Turkey
Approach Lukla->Khumbu Valley
Basecamp Date 1998-04-04
Summit Date 1998-05-18
Summit Time -
Summit Days 44
Total Days 56
Termination Date 1998-05-30
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8516
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 200
Total Members 6
Summit Members 5
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 2
Summit Hired 1
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep True
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(04/04,5400m),C1(08/04,6000m),C2(10/04,6400m),C3(22/04,7350m),C4(24/05,7900m),Smt(18,25,27/05)
Route Notes First group on 25 May started from C4 at 4:30 am and summited at 11:00 am came down to C2. This group was climbing with two other Henry Todd expeditions to Everest up to C3. Shared fixed ropes, camps up to C3. Used 2 Sherpas for Lhotse after C3. Members left BC from May 20 onwards. Made a summit attempt on May 18 from C3 and got up to 8300m. Abandoned because it was getting late, tired, and deep snow. Source of above information: Andrew Lapkass Use of oxygen: Heinrich and Lapkass started from C3 including for sleeping. Bull and Pauls started from C4 including for sleeping. 5 other climbers on the Lhotse permit did not attempt Lhotse, but concentrated solely on Everest. From another team summiter: "I have absolutely no doubt he did not get to the summit." His description of summit was "totally different" from the highest summit: he described a rock summit, but true top" is like an ice snow finger" which one climbs up onto top of. Maybe he reached 200m from true top. Lapkass doesn't really know how high he got. Weather was clear that day so no problem of visability. "Probably he thought that was good enough" and "figured no one would get to the summit later and realize the discrepancies." There is a peak on the left which is in front of another one which is the highest. Mahruki: he and 3 other members and Ang Kami and Kipa went for summit on 18 May from C3 since team had not yet put another camp higher and it was an extremely long way to top. All others in this party turned turned around at 16:45 only 60m below summit; they were using oxygen and probably it was running out. But Mahruki was too close to top to go down yet and since he was using no oxygen, he didn't have this problem, so he continued up. Last part to top alone in possible in deep snow so he went left under a snow summit to get to rocks and took off his crampons and gloves to gain top on rock. Weather was "perfect." He made round trip from C3 to top to C3 in 25 hours: "I've never been that tired in my life" (had left C3 at 00:15 hours on 18th). Ratcliffe: Mahruki's actually reaching summit questioned by some other climbers who found his footprints in snow had stopped short but he explained that he went on to rocks, and he was gone long enough for his account to be true. Inaki Ochoa, who nearly reached summit on 17 May, had dinner with Mahruki in KTM after their return from Lhotse and he was sure Mahruki had gotten to top. Now [12 March 99] after reading Mahruki's fax to me of 24 Dec 98: "I am absolutely sure." During their dinner, Mahruki's description of last part of climb was completely convincing and fax reinforces it. Letter to Elizabeth Hawley from Ali Nasuh Mahruki: Dear Miss Hawley, I am sorry for this late letter. Anyway, I will try to write down everything about my Lhotse summit to make your opinion more clear. Our original plan for the summit attempt was; Andy, Brad and Kipa would go a day ahead of myself, Ilgvars and Ang Kami. On 15th, the first team left base camp for camp 2 for the summit push. Next day we went to camp 2 and surprised finding the first team still in there. They supposed to go to camp 3 and then try to set up camp 4 on the summit route. However they claimed it was very windy and they decided to wait another day. Of coarse this would cause a space problem on camp 4 for all of us. Also Andy had an argument with Henry about this problem. Before we could even make a decision on how to reorganize our summit plan, we got some bad news from the base camp about the weather forecast. It was a hard decision under those circumstances. We wanted at least to attempt the summit but the possibility of a coming cyclone to hit us was quite a risk. One thing I want to mention here is that, after the moment Andy heard about the coming cyclone, he said that we have to abandon the attempt. I was watching him during our base camp days and he never felt good and wanted to push hard for the summit. He was usually sick and when he got this coming cyclone news, immediately he wanted to return the team back. Without getting our ideas, he said on the radio to Henry that the whole team would understand and be happy to help carrying back the camps. Of course I refused this idea and as I insisted he had to call Henry again and told him that Nasuh does not feel that way and he wants to try. I think this is the first time that I felt Andy did not like me. On the night of 16th May, three Swiss climbers and Basque Inaki Ochoa set off to the summit from camp 2. After long radio talks with the other teams and watching weather forecast, finally it is decided that six of us go to camp 3 on 17th of May. At the first minutes of 18th of May, 00:15, we left camp 3 and started to go for the summit. The weather was perfect, no wind, no clouds and all clear and I was feeling perfectly well. First three hours I climbed in front of the group. I climbed the Yellow Band and kept going on the traverse on Lhotse towards Everest south col. I climbed till the junction of Lhotse route under the Turtle. There I decided to wait for the group thatD coming behind. At that junction point, I waited 45 minutes for the rest of the team and got cold. This can give you an idea about my speed. When the other five climbers reached, they stopped about ten minutes and all of them switched on oxygen. I made a decision on trying to climb this mountain without oxygen, so I carried only one bottle enough for six hours just in case. Everybody else carried 2 bottles. It was obvious even there that Andy was feeling bad. He had some breathing problem and his voice was very quiet. After they put their oxygen masks, all of us started together. First few hours, I was behind the group as I was without oxygen. But later I got my place in the middle. When we arrived somewhere around 8200 meters, I spoke with Andy who was behind me. He was looking very bad and tired and complaining that he cannot breathe, I was feeling very good and sure that I could do it without oxygen after that point. So I decided to give him my oxygen bottle for the rest of the route. I also gave him my masks as his was frozen. We kept climbing like that and at 16:40 we reached about 8450 meters after 16.5 hours of non-stop climb. Kipa and Ang Kami were in the front and Brad was behind them. I was the fourth on the route, then Ilgvars and Andy. At that place Andy was looking terribly tired and he was shouting to Ilgvars for some oxygen, Ilgvars was shouting to me that Andy wants oxygen and I passed this message to Brad and he passed it to Kipa and Ang Kami. However there were no oxygen left or they didn't want to give it to Andy. The Sherpas decided to abandon the attempt. They said it is too risky as we had not more rope and were all tired. Andy was not in a situation to argue. Ilgvars didn't oppose as well. I still remember Brad talking on his radio with his base camp: "I could kiss the summit but we have to return. But it is alright, I am happy about it." This was a hard moment for me, because although I was very tired, still feeling allright and after seeing the summit right in front of me, I couldn't decide to go back. I said I will try and left my rucksack at that point and started to climb slowly. I was very much motivated and concentrated on the summit. So I didn't even think about carrying any extra weight. My cameras were in my rucksack, and I didn't even bother with taking them with me. I lost interest on anything other then the summit itself. Probably this is my personality. Sometimes, I can become a very stubborn person. Before the others start going back, to make everything clear I spoke with Kipa and Brad and found out the summit. There was the end of the Lhotse couloir in front of us. There were a big hill on the left side and a rocky peak on the right. I knew from some articles that the real summit is the one on the left. But to make sure I asked the Sherpas before they go. When I was going up, I knew where to go. It was the big hill on the left of the couloir. It was no more a closed couloir as it was below, however there were so much snow on the route for me to break the trail all alone. So I decided to follow a shorter but more riskier route. I climbed directly under the summit point which is visible as a small rock pinnacle from 60-70 meters below. I went out of the original route towards left and I climbed some 5-10 meters higher than the couloir route. When I got under the summit, it was a 20 meter 90 degree steep rock between myself and the summit. I was prepared psychologically when I was coming up here, so I didn't hesitate. I climbed the first 5-6 meters on snow and reached the rocky part. There I had to make a new decision. I had to take off my crampons to fit my feet to the small steps and take off my gloves to hold the rock better. Thanks to the perfect weather, I didn't have so much a cold problem on my fingers. The face was mostly covered with snow, however on the left side there were rock formations mostly clean from snow. The rock was in blocks in thin slices so it was not a very safe place to be on. I found an easier chimney-like route between two rock groups and followed that. Although dangerous as most of the rocks were loose, was relatively easier as well, I climbed very very carefully and reached the ridge. When I was on the ridge I saw the old fixed ropes coming from the col from the end of the couloir towards where I was. There were bad quality, quite thick for this altitude and blue colour. I saw the magnificent view of Makalu on my right side. It was looking amazingly big and close to Lhotse. It was like a huge rock, mostly clean from snow, above some ridge systems. In front of me there was a ridge that goes towards the Makalu. The summit ridge was quite a narrow place to be on, because when I looked down, I saw a huge fall in front of me forming a bowl like shape with the ridge couple of hundred meters in the front. I was afraid of sliding down and flying hundreds of meters. I didn't get much close that side. To reach the summit point I had to climb maybe some 5-6 meters more on the ridge towards my left. There I reached under that last rock pinnacle. To make sure that I was on the summit I leaned on my hands and moved myself up on this maybe 3-meter pinnacle and looked behind it. It was going down and there were no more higher places after that point. At that time I was sure that other then Everest itself there was no place around me higher then where I was. It was 18:30. The last 70 meters took me almost two hours to climb. I stood at the summit 3-4 minutes and started to go down before the sunlight goes away. The 20-meter rock face was the hardest, however I managed to get down with a few small slides, luckily not a serious problem. I just had little bit frostnips on my hands as I still had no gloves and had to hold myself tight to not slide down from the rock. When I got back to my crampons and gloves, I quickly put them on. Crampons were the hardest with frostnips. Anyway, when I got to my rucksack it was dark so I took out my head torch and start going down. Very tired, but happy. I even had no photo from that point of 8450 meters where all six of us have reached. When I was going up, I had nothing in my mind but the summit. I even didn't want to lose time for a photo. When I got back from the summit, there were no more daylight for taking a photo. With all left in my body I kept going down. Although I climbed 2 hours more and another half our to get back to my rucksack, I caught Ilgvars just below the Lhotse couloir. He told me that when he was going down he dropped his head torch and had to wait for me more then an hour. We kept going with my light. At the junction point of Lhotse and Everest, we caught Andy. I am quite surprised that they were still on the route, I thought they should be in camp 3 by then. Anyway, I was absolutely finished from that long and oxygenless ascent, but still in better shape then Andy and Ilgvars. When we got to Yellow Band, I was in front and waiting for them to come. Ilgvars and Andy were together, Ilgvars shouted at me and called me up where they were. This was a terrible thing to do in such a situation. He was asking me to climb some 50 meters and help them. It took me a long time to go up a little bit, where they finally started to come down. Ilgvars what was going on. He told me that Andy was very bad and nearly dying. He asked me to carry an oxygen bottle. I didn't know whose bottle was that. Ilgvars have left his rucksack somewhere higher, so he didn't have a place to carry that bottle. Andy was not in a situation to carry anything down. So I took the bottle and brought it back to camp 3. Eventually, at 00:25 I reached camp 3 after 25 hours of nonstop, no oxygen ascent and descent at that attitude. Andy and Ilgvars arrived camp 3 some 25 minutes later then me. This was the story of my summit. However my teammates for some reason never wanted to believe that I reached the summit. Especially Andy had some personal problems with me. I heard his quite negative ides about me from other people on our expedition. Ilgvars says that he did not see my foot prints after 8450 m. It is such a ridiculous thing to look for my trail on the colouar, where I had never been. I explained them maybe ten times about my route, but it seems like they do not want to admit it. Probably it comes a bit hard for them to accept that a climber reached the summit without oxygen where they couldn't even with oxygen on the same day. One more thing is, when we got to C2, before asking me a single question or listening my story, Andy told me that, he does not believe that I reached the summit. And he kept his biased idealogy about me all the way. Dear Miss Hawlay, this is what happened on Lhotse, I hope it will be enough for you. If not please let me know. I don't care about them, but I want your opinion it is important for me. I hope to see you back in Kathmandu. Sincerely, Nasuh Dear Miss Hawley, I received both your letter of last December and the new fax. Your point of view is important for me. Thank you, very much for your attitude. I appreciate your interest about this unpleasant situation. I assume that you are aware of the article on the mountain information pages of the High Magazine December issue. Andy Lapkass, for some reason states that, I was 200 meters short of the summit. At least we all know that all six of us from our summit team were as close as 70 meters to the summit. Starting from that point of view. I believe, the argument should anyway start for the last 70 meters. However, by saying some 200 meters, Andy Lapkass, believes, he will be more credible and I will have no chance at all. Anyway, I already wrote to the editor of High Magazine, (Lindsay Griffin) about this situation. If there is anything you can suggest me to do for solving this problem, I would love to try that. After Greg Child, this is my second argument with a known climber. I managed to solve the first one after a one argument with the editors of Outside magazine, at the moment, my article near Greg Childs, is also available on their web page. I believe some how I will sort this out as well, because I am telling the truth. I guess our rather small community has got so much psychological weaknesses, although I definitely dislike, I started getting used to it. Dear Miss Hawley, I would like to thank you very much again for your time. For this year my climbing schedule is still unclear, but I hope we'll meet in Kathmandu again. Sincere yours, Nasuh
Accidents Markey sprained ankle, left BC on May 4
Achievement 1st Latvian, 1st Argentinean, 1st Turk and Muslim Lhotse summit
Agency Arun Treks
Commercial Route -
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2453805
Year 1998
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) w face

Members

7 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Bradford C. (Brad) Bull M 1967 USA Climber Denver, Colorado Architect Details Other expeditions
Tomas (Tommy) Heinrich M 1962 Argentina Climber Prescott, Arizona Photagrapher Details Other expeditions
Andrew Atis (Andy) Lapkass M 1958 USA Leader Boulder, Colorado Alpine guide & physician's assistant Details Other expeditions
Ali Nasuh Mahruki M 1968 Turkey Climber Etiler, Istanbul, Turkey Photojournalist Details Other expeditions
Scott Thomas Markey M 1966 Canada Exp Doctor Vancouver, British Columbia Physician Details Other expeditions
Ilgvars Pauls M 1957 Latvia Climber Cesis, Latvia Engineer Details Other expeditions
Kami (Kame) Sherpa M 1962 Nepal H-A Worker Bagam, Kerung, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

1 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
LHOT98102 HIGH - - - 193:27 (Dec 1998) -