KATHMANDU, Apr 13 (NNN-YONHAP) – A team led by renowned South Korean climber, Sung-Taek Hong, will try again to climb Mt. Lhotse this spring, from its south face, which is considered one of the toughest climbs in the world, the team announced yesterday.
“It will be the seventh attempt by Hong, on the Lhotse South Face,” Migma Sherpa, chairperson of the Seven Summit Treks, organising the team’s expedition, said.
If the team makes it to the world’s fourth-highest peak from its south face, it will be the first success since Oct, 1990, when two Russian climbers, Sergey Bershov and Gennadiy Karataev, first successfully climbed the 8,516-metre-high mountain from the south face. Several attempts by other climbers had failed since.
“The team has advanced climbing techniques and numerous experiences and intends to climb the Lhotse South Face,” the team said in a press release, while acknowledging the south face as “a challenging climb and one of the most difficult vertical walls in the world.”
Hong, a mountaineer, explorer and author, had already reached all Three Poles – the North Pole, the South Pole and the summit of the world’s tallest Mt. Qomolangma (8,848.86m). He had also crossed the Bering Strait and Greenland.
Other members of the team include, Myung Suk Koh, Byoung Tae, Jupil Park, Nakjong Seong, Jae Chul Kim, Jorge Egoxheraga Rodriguez and Vadim Pirmin Druelle.– NNN-YONHAP
