KILIAN JORNET RETURNS TO EVEREST: WEST RIDGE TO EVEREST (8,848m) AND TRAVERSE TO LHOTSE (8,516m).

Posted by Héctor Rubio on April 17, 2021 in everest, trail running spain | 2 Comments

KILIAN JORNET RETURNS TO EVEREST: WEST RIDGE TO EVEREST (8,848m) AND TRAVERSE TO LHOTSE (8,516m).News pending official confirmation by Kilian himself, although, as we may have known Kilian would be preparing his return to the Himalayas this spring to make the ascent to the west ridge of Everest and subsequent traverse to the Lothse.

Right at the same moment when Emilie and Kilian have just announced the birth of the family’s second child. Congratulations couple!

KILIAN JORNET RETURNS TO EVEREST: WEST RIDGE TO EVEREST (8,848m) AND TRAVERSE TO LOTSHE (8,516m).

KILIAN JORNET DOUBLE EVEREST CLIMB 2017

As we were telling you here, in 2017, the Norwegian-based athlete completed two ascents to the top of the world in the spring of that year: the first ascent completed on May 25 with descent to Advanced Base Camp (6,300m) and the second on May 28 in which Kilian was betting again to try to repeat the feat, this time from that height. He did it!  And in just 17 hours, compared to the 26h of the first ascent from the 5,100m of Rongbuk Monastery.

Assaulting his latest challenge on the Summits of My Life project started in 2012. He reached the top almost on the edge of midnight from 21st to 22nd May and continued to descend towards 5,000m of Rongbuk Monastery to complete his challenge.

Kilian Jornet climbed the north face of Everest (8,848m) for the second time in a week on May 2017. Again he climbed not without using supplemental oxygen, nor fixed ropes and did so in a single run. With this ascent Jornet repeated to the top of the world six days after having climbed for the first time and explained: “I’m so excited to have been able to summit again! Today I found myself well even though it was very windy and I had a hard time moving forward. Two times summit at Everest in a week and without supplementary oxygen I think it establishes a new line of possibilities in mountaineering and I am very happy to have been able to carry it out”.

Two Everest in a week: Jornet summited the North Face of Everest on May 27 at 9 p.m. (+5:45GMT). He had departed at 2 a.m. from Advanced Base Camp, located at 6,400m. From there he was heading to the top past the three high fields where mountaineers who want to climb the highest mountain in the world and who take an average of four days usually stop. The ascent to the top has been slow but progressive.

The wind was the main obstacle that Jornet had to overcome, on a very windy day in the Himalayas. Weather conditions have improved overnight and for the final part of the challenge returned to the Advanced Base Camp 28h30 hours after departure.

Accumulated challenge pass times
Everest Advanced Base Camp (6,400m)-Summit (8,848m): 5pm
Summit (8,848m) – Everest Advanced Base Camp (6,400m): 6:30pm

EVEREST-LHOTSE TRAVERSE, UELI STECK’S LAST PROJECT .

The same year Kilian twice crowned the top of Everest, and as Ueli Steck himself detailed in 2017 and we told you here his great goal was to make the Everest-Lothse crossing along the western edge of Everest with the Tenzing Sherpa team, as a member of a new generation of Nepalese sherpas interested not only in commercial support for the expeditions but also for making new high-level ascents themselves.

Ueli, Tenjin with their cook camp base. Photo: Ueli Steck

Everest-Lhotse Project 2017: Thus, the two departed for the Khumbu region to try to climb Mount Everest by an ascended road in 1963 and never repeated since, known as the “West Ridge / Hornbein Couloir”. They wanted to do it in addition during the spring season and do it with the highest purity, just two people and ascending without using artificial oxygen and so I said Ueli here. Unfortunatelly, as well known, on April 30, 2017, the Swiss mountaineer died in an accident while trying this traverse Everest-Lhotse.

EVEREST WEST RIDGE OR HORNBEIN COULOIR 1963

The route dates back to 1963 and its name was called “West Edge Route/Hornbein Couloir”. It is a route that was made by a group of American hyalayists in their attempt to open a route entirely by the west ridge (dividing the north and south faces). For their ascent, they started from the C2 of the southern route over the Khumbu glacier taking the ridge to 7300m. From there, they continued through it until the first steps of great difficulty at 7600m and seeing that they could not continue on the edge they took to the left entering the north face. Once there they went up a corridor of great technical difficulty reaching the top.

KILIAN JORNET WEST RIDGE EVEREST & LOTHSE TRAVERSE 2021

Still awaiting offficial confirmation by the Catalan athlete, as you can see in the image above, the challenge of the planned crossing (if the information we know until now is met) would also include the descent to the South Col from the 8,848m of the summit of Everest before resuming a new ascent, this time by a direct route to the 8,516m of the top of the Lhotse before finally embarking on the return to the base camp, that is, something very similar to what Ueli Steck intended to accomplish in 2017.

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