원정 개요

Romanian Lhotse Expedition, Constantin Lacatusu - 30 May 2008

Lacatusu developed bad diarrhea at the end of April, so he went down to Namche Bazar to recover; Lhotse and Everest were closed from 1 to about 10 May while the Chinese Olympic Torch team was on the north side of Everest, so he had time to get well at lower altitudes than BC.

He returned to BC on 8 May and established C3 on the 14th, then went down to BC. On the 19th he began his summit push by climbing from BC to C2 that day. On the 20th he was in C3 and on the 21st he made C4 at 7850m below the couloir. He stayed there an extra day because it was snowing all day.

At 1:00 am on the 23rd he set out for the top. He left C4 at 1:00 am, but stopped at 4:30 am at 8300m in the couloir. There was too much fresh snow; he was climbing without oxygen and it was very cold; and he could see there was strong wind above the couloir.

He returned to C4 at 6:00 am, stayed there for two hours and then descended to C2, which he reached at 6:30 pm. On the 24th he was back in BC, and his climb was finished. He was tired, and snow conditions were bad. He left BC on 27 May and was in Kathmandu on the 29th.

He said he was no longer interested in 8000m mountains but would like to try smaller mountains not yet successfully climbed.