원정 개요

After a rest and a drink, Cool left C4 again at 9:30 am to move over to Lhotse C4 (7800m), where he arrived at 11:30 am (Dorje Gyalzen had descended to C2). At about 6 pm the same day, he had heard about the Taiwanese climber, Hsaio-Shih Lee, who was very unwell in his tent at Lhotse lower C4. Cool moved down to be with Lee and stayed with him the whole night. Lee passed away at about 7 am on 20 May.

Cool went back to his camp, rested a bit and left for the summit at 9:15 am (Mike Roberts from Adventure Consultants had popped in for a quick drink and Cool left about 5 minutes after Roberts).

Straightforward climb. Couloirs was very dry. He spent about 15 minutes on the summit; however, it was very cloudy and he did not see anything. He descended to C2, where he arrived at 5 pm.

Cool was climbing on his own, as his Nigerian client Abiola, never made it to Nepal. He had other political engagements and cancelled the expedition.


From Lindsay Griffin - 2 October 2013

The two [Kenton Cool and Dorje Gyalzen] then made an extremely speedy descent to the South Col (in a little over two hours), where a few hours sleep was grabbed before they left at 10:00 am for Lhotse's Camp 4 (~7800m), arriving two hours later. Rather than get any much-needed sleep that night, the two found themselves caring for a stricken Taiwanese mountaineer, Lee Hsiao-shih, who had collapsed after summiting Lhotse. Despite administering dexamethasone and oxygen throughout the night, Lee passed away the following morning.

At that point Cool nearly gave up, but at 9:15 am on the 20th he and Dorje Gyalgen left camp in the company of New Zealand guide Mike Roberts and Tendi Sherpa, who had come up to rescue Lee, and reached Lhotse's summit at around 1:00 pm. Over the last few years Lhotse has been fixed all the way to the top, and this season was no different, work being carried out by Sherpas employed by operators Himex, Adventure Consultants and International Mountain Guides. Although some of the anchors may have been rather dodgy, the 10mm static rope was comfortingly sound. Cool and Dorje Gyalgen descended to Camp 2 in the Western Cwm the same day, and made it back to base camp on the 21st.

Cool used a couple of oxygen bottles on Everest, and one on Lhotse.