Lhotse, the second peak of Everest, is the fourth highest mountain in the world. It was first climbed by a Swiss expedition in 1956. The expedition also made the second ascent of Everest. The first ascent took a direct route up the Lhotse Face, famous as the route to the South Col. Later expeditions attempted the South Face, one of the steepest and longest mountain walls in the world.

The summit Lhotse East or Middle (8,414 m) is situated on the ridge between Main summit of Lhotse 8,516 m and summit Lhotse Shar 8,400 m. Any separate ascents up to this summit are practically excluded because of the steep walls and very crossed relief and it is possible to summit it only climbing up to Lhotse Main or Lhotse Shar before and then make a traverse of a very crossed ridge with a length about 1000 meters. The ascent up to Lhotse Main by itself or Lhotse Shar is the task of separate expedition and the additional traverse which requires several days of work on the height more then 8,300 m makes the Lhotse East unclimbed till nowadays. Actually almost all more or less interesting eightsousanders Faces and ridges in Himalayas were climbed. Last first ascent up to the summit higher then 8 000 m was in 1982.

Plans to be on the summit of Lhotse Middle already had several teams but all attempts were unsuccessful. In 1994 the team from Switzerland tried to make a traverse to Lhotse East but climbed the Lhotse Main summit on 9:10 a.m.had to refuse next climbing because of awful state of the route and wild froze. The Russian team (part of it is now participate in the autumn expedition) also tried to climb this last Himalayan citadel on spring 1997 but the very bad weather in Everest region did not allow to do it. On the descent from the Main Lhotse summit the strongest high altitude climber of Russia Vladimir Bashkirov was died.

In 1997 one try to summit east top by traverse from main Lhotse. The route of this year is the traverse via Lhotse Shar. The ascentis dedicated to memory of Vladimir Bashkirov.

Mountaineering Regulation Mountaineering Regulation
The Royalty and the size of the Expedition Team: More than one team may be permitted to climb Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) by a separate route each in one season. A Royalty of US$ 50,000 has been fixed for Sagarmatha for a team consisting of seven members. The team may include 5 more members provided it pays extra US$ 10,000 for each additional member. The royalty includes trekking fee of the team members. The team members will be granted three months visa. Additional, US$ 20,000 will have to be paid by the team willing to scale Mt. Everest by normal south - East Ridge route.In all regions including Khumbu, an expedition team can have up to 7 members for the minimum, and 5 more members for the additional royalty. The team already permitted to scale Mt. Everest will have to pay US$ 10,000 if it intends to change the accent route. It will have to pay additional US$ 20, 000, if it intends to change the ascent route to normal south East Ridge route For peaks other than Mt. Everest, the team will have to pay an additional 25% of the royalty in US$ to change the ascent route. Expedition team must complete all necessary administrative formalities and procedures in order to send back the garbage of the expedition team to their respective countries, after the completion of the expedition. The Ministry of Tourism & Civil Aviation will take necessary monetary deposit from them, which will be refunded after the dispatch of the garbage from Nepal.