Last Wednesday’s night, Hong-Gil and his team launched a summit push from a higher camp at 8,200 meters and reached the top 15 hours later, on May 31. Image of Um courtesy of KBS, Image of Lhotse's south face, with Lhotse Shar to the right, courtesy of Leipzig Online (click to enlarge).
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Um Hong-Gil summits Lhotse Shar via its south face
Posted: Jun 04, 2007 03:22 am EDT
(MountEverest/Madrid) Korean 14x8000er summiteer Um Hong-Gil summited Lhotse Shar via its south face last Thursday, together with team mates Byung Sung-ho and Mo Sang-hyun, and one climbing Sherpa. This is a long-time cherished goal for Um, who had been forced back on three previous attempts.
Summit on the fourth attempt
On a first attempt in 2001, Um’s team turned around at 7,600m due to bad weather, KBS World radio reports. In 2003, the expedition was aborted after two team members died in an avalanche at 8,250 meters – last year, similar conditions on the higher sections (high risk of avalanches) decided Um to call the attempt off one more time.
Last Wednesday’s night, Hong-Gil and his team launched a summit push from a higher camp at 8,200 meters and reached the top 15 hours later, on May 31.
Um Hong-Gil was born in Seoul, South Korea, 47 years ago. In 2000, Hong-Gil claimed to be the first Asian 14 8000ers summiteer before Young Seok-Park, but many voices were raised doubting the value of his climbs on Lhotse and Shisha Pangma. Um climbed them both again (Lhotse in spring 2001, Shisha in fall 2001). In the mean time though, Seok-Park finished his own quest, grabbing the 'First Asian' title. Officially, Um Hong-Hil became the 9th person to summit the 14,8000ers as he stepped on the summit of Shisha Pangma Main on September 21, 2001.
In addition to the Big 14, Um summited 8505-meter-tall Yalung Khan (Kangchenjunga’s West summit) in 2004, and has now bagged 8,400m’s Lhotse Shar (May 31, 2007).
Um has summited Everest three times, all of them with supplementary O2 support.
Lhotse, rising at the side of Everest, is the fourth highest peak on earth: Its main summit is 8,516 meters. Secondary summits are Lhotse Middle (East) at 8,414m and Lhotse Shar at 8,383 metres. Lhotse Shar was first summited by Zepp Maierl and Rolf Walter via the SSE ridge. Lhotse Middle’s first ascent was made by Russian Eugeny Vinogradsky, Sergei Timofeev, Alexei Bolotov and Petr Kuznetsov.
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