Complete Article
Hugo Ayaviri to attempt Everest-Lhotse double without oxygen
Article published in www.desnivel.com
Hugo Ayaviri is one of the most interesting names to follow for the fans of eight-thousanders. The Bolivian climber, mountaineer, himalayan climber, guide and rescuer will travel for the first time to the Himalayas of Nepal, after having climbed without oxygen the five eight-thousanders of Pakistan, to try to complete a double Everest-Lhotse in the same season and also without supplementary oxygen.
As he himself emphasized in a video presentation of the adventure published on his social networks, he would be the first Bolivian to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen, as well as the first Bolivian to summit Lhotse.
In his first expedition to the great mountains of Asia, Hugo Ayaviri made headlines in the summer of 2021 for linking the summits of Broad Peak and K2 without oxygen in ten days, along with Belgian Niels Jespers. He also helped Sajid Sadpara move the body of his father Ali Sadpara and bury him near Camp 4 on K2. Two years later, he returned to share a mountain with Sajid Sadpara, to summit Nanga Parbat together. Not satisfied with that, he then moved to Baltoro to climb Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I that same summer.
Few precedents for a double without oxygen
Although in recent years it has become more and more common to hear news about double ascents of Everest and Lhotse, there are not too many precedents without using supplemental oxygen. According to data from The Himalayan Database, there have been nearly 300 people who have been to both summits in the same season, and many of them - basically Nepalese - have done it several times. However, there are only five people who have done it without oxygen in the entire history.
The first of these was the Slovakian Jozef Just back in 1988, when he reached the summit of Lhotse on September 28 and crowned Everest on October 17, although he disappeared during the descent.
In the ill-fated spring season of 1996, Kazakhstan's Anatoli Boukreev had reached the summit of Everest on May 10, an ascent overshadowed by the tragedy that ended with the death of eight people. A week later, in his profession as a guide, he accompanied his client Michael Knakkerngaard-Jorgensen on the attempt to Lhotse, which he ended up completing solo.
Fifteen years passed before another mountaineer climbed Everest and Lhotse without oxygen in the same season. It was Iran's Mahdi Amidi in the spring of 2011. He first climbed Everest, on May 13, and then ascended Lhotse, which he topped out on May 21.
Next on this exclusive list is Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr who, after descending to C2 from the summit of Lhotse with Sergi Mingote on May 16, 2019 and participating in the rescue of Nastia Runova and Ivan Tomov, resumed the ascent path to Everest, which he crowned on May 23. One step further was Nirmal Purja during the spring season 2022. The Nepalese eight-thousander linked the summits of Everest and Lhotse without supplementary oxygen in a single attempt. Thus, on May 15 he set foot on the roof of the world and the following day, May 16, he reached the summit of Lhotse. Not satisfied with this, Nims Dai repeated the journey a few days later, reaching the summit of Everest on May 27 and Lhotse on May 28.
The remaining challenge of the traverse
Nirmal Purja's double ascent is an impressive achievement, although it cannot yet be strictly termed a traverse, as it does not follow the shorter route between the two peaks, but descends the normal Everest route to the last common point with the normal Lhotse route and continues from there to the summit with the aid of fixed ropes throughout.
No one has done the Everest-Lhotse traverse without oxygen, which would consist of undertaking the ascent of Lhotse directly from the South Col, which is the highest point of junction between the two mountains. Going even further in a strict reading of the concept of traverse, this should not repeat any section of route, which would mean ascending, for example, the west ridge to the summit of Everest, descend to the South Col and from there ascend to Lhotse to descend the normal. An adventure, by the way, that Ueli Steck had already considered and was rumored to be about to undertake when he died on Nuptse.