Lho La

The Lho La (Chinese: 洛拉山坳) is a col on the border between Nepal and Tibet north of the Western Cwm, near Mount Everest. Situated low on the West Ridge of the mountain at a height of 6,006 metres (19,705 ft), it is not exactly a pass but more of a saddle on the Mt. Everest massif.

History and name

Local accounts suggest that before Khumbu was opened to Western mountaineers, the col served as a practical crossing point over the lowest section of Everest’s West Ridge. These describe trade routes between Nepal and Tibet linking Namche Bazaar and Tingri as well as routes used by local monks. Such claims rely on a period when Everest’s glaciers stood much higher than they do today, meaning that traversing the icefall and the col may have required less steep, technical climbing than in the present era.

For example Trulshik Rinpoche claimed Lho La was part of a trade route around 1800, but as the glaciers subsequently declined, the favoured route became the Nangpa La, to the west. However mountaineers expressed scepticism that a viable route existed that recently.

Klavs Becker-Larsen was told by local sherpas at the onset of his 1951 expedition that a monk had ascended Lho La to return to Rongbuk monastery and hence the route was viable, however Becker-Larsen had to abandon his subsequent attempt to climb Lho La half way due to the dangers of the route. The account of the monk may have been based on a historic traverse when the climb was more feasible.