Babar Ali now scales Mount Lhotse

Two days after scaling Mount Everest, Bangladeshi mountaineer Babar Ali has conquered Mount Lhotse today.

Standing 8,516 meters tall, Mount Lhotse is the fourth highest peak in the world.

Bodha Raj Bhandari, Nepali agent of Babar Ali’s Everest-Lhotse expedition, confirmed the news to Prothom Alo.

Babar embarked on the Everest and Lhotse expedition under Snowy Horizon. Bir Bahadur Tamang is the Sherpa who is accompanying 33-year old Babar Ali.  

Snowy Horizon's proprietor Bodha Raj Bhandari told Prothom Alo on Tuesday morning that Babar Ali conquered Mount Lhotse at 5:50 Nepali time (6:05 Bangladesh time). He conquered Mount Everest on 19 May.

Babar’s organisation Vertical Dreamers on its Facebook page wrote, “An unprecedented and adventurous chapter has been written in the history of mountaineering in Bangladesh. Babar Ali is the man who wrote this history…This is the first Lhotse summit by any son of Bangladesh’s soil and this is the first instance of summiting two 8000ers (the mountains above 8000 meters) in a single expedition…Babar has started descending. The main celebration would start once he reaches base camp.”

Babar Ali left Bangladesh for Nepal on 1 April, to embark on his Everest journey. After taking necessary preparations, he flew from Kathmandu to Lukla Airport on 4 April. From there, he began his trek to Everest base camp and reached there on 10 April.

Babar undertook several climbs to acclimatize. He traveled from base camp to camp-2 on 26 April and wrapped up the acclimatisation phase. He then waited for favorable weather conditions.

On 14 May, Babar started his journey from the base camp and reached camp-2 within the day. After spending two nights there, he moved to camp-3 on 18 May and reached camp-4 on 19 May.

The upper part of camp-4, situated at 26,000 feet, is known as the 'death zone'. Babar resumed his climb at midnight on 18 May and reached the peak of Mount Everest at 29,032 feet by the first light of 19 May.

He then descended to camp-4 and started for Lhotse on 20 May midnight.
Swiss mountaineers Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss made the first ascent of Lhotse on 18 May 1956.