Mt. Lhotse was climbed by a Swiss expedition in 1956. Its lower peak, mount Lhotse Shar 8383m, sometimes considered a separate 8000m peak, Mount Lhotse, which means “South peak” is a part of the Everest massif, just to the south of Everest. The primary route on mount Lhotse is via Everest’s South Col. But by 1955, despite the activity on Mount Everest, Lhotse was the highest unclimbed peak in the world.
The first attempt on Mount Lhotse was by an international team in 1955. One member of the party was Erwin Schneider; during this expedition, he began work on the first of the series of high-quality “Schneider maps of the Everest region”. The same Swiss party that made the second ascent of Everest in 1956 that made the first ascent of Mount Lhotse from a camp just below the South Col.
Mount Lhotse Shar was first climbed by an Austrian expedition in 1970. Japanese, South Koreans, and Germans attempted various routes on its main peak. Poles and Italians also climbed the summit before the summit was reached again by German expeditions in 1977.
