원정 개요

The two Finns for Lhotse were attached to the Everest expedition led by Valloton. They arrived at BC with them and Valanne first occupied C1 on the same day as they, 21 April.

But Kallio only "touched" C1 on 19 April, descended to BC the same day and left the expedition on the 20th. He said wanted to trek, not to climb a mountain, but he flew from Lukla to Kathmandu on the 23rd and left Nepal on the 24th.

That left Valanne as the only member for Lhotse. Lhotse's BC, C1, C2 and C3 are the same for Everest and Lhotse. He went up to C2 on 22 April, then down to BC on the 23rd. He started up again and reached C2 on the 29th, spent two nights there, and on 1 May tried to go up Lhotse's West Face to C3. However he gained no altitude: he went over to the bergschrund at the bottom of the face, but had become very tired so retreated to C2 for the night and descended to BC on the 2nd.

Valanne went down to Pheriche to rest, returned to BC, went back to Pheriche and again to BC. Now he tried to make progress and on 23 May climbed to C1, on 24th to C2, and on 25th to C3 on the face.

But then it snowed all that night, and small avalanches came down the face. On 26 May he went all the way down to BC, left BC on the 27th, and left Nepal on 1 June.

One Sherpa climbed with Valanne:
Sange Sherpa, 21/5/71, Dinding, Makalu, Lhotse 20/5/09