Lhotse (8516) was climbed by a Swiss expedition in 1956. Its lower peak, Lhotse Shar, 8383m, sometimes considered a separate 8000m peak, Lhotse, which means "South peak" is part of the Everest massif, just to the south of Everest. The primary route on Lhotse is via Everest's South Col. but by 1955, despite the activity on Everest Lhotse was the highest unclimbed peak in the world.

The first attempt on Lhotse was by an international team in 1955. One member of the party was Erwin Schneider, during this expedition he began work on the first of the series of high-quality "Schneider maps of the Everest region. The same Swiss party that made the second ascent of Everest in 1956 made the first ascent of Lhotse from a camp just below the South Col.

Lhotse Shar was first climbed by an Austrian expedition in 1970. Various routes on the main peak were attempted by Japanese, South Koreans, Germans. Poles and Italians before the summit was reached again by German expeditions in 1977.

Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain on Earth and is connected to Mount Everest via the South Col. In addition to the main summit, Lhotse Middle (East) is 8,414 metres and Lhotse Shar is 8,383 metres.

Lhotse (main) was first climbed on May 18, 1956 by the Swiss team Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger. On May 12, 1979, Zepp Maierl and Rolf Walter of Austria made the first ascent of Lhotse Shar. On May 23, 2001, the first ascent of Lhotse Middle was made by Eugeny Vinogradsky, Serguei Timofeev, Alexei Bolotov and Petr Kuznetsov of a Russian expedition.

On 31 December 1988, Krzysztof Wielicki, a Polish climber, completed the first ascent of a eight-thousander in winter.

As of October 2003, 243 climbers have summitted Lhotse and 11 have died.