Jitendra Gaware ascended the 8,516-metre Mt Lhotse, the fourth tallest mountain after Mount Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga, on Saturday to become Maharashtra’s second climber to achieve the feat.
The main summit of Mt Lhotse is on the border between Tibet and the Khumbu region of Nepal.
Gaware, 44, completed the expedition in 35 days.
After putting on the climbing shoes after joining the Guardian Giripremi Institute of Mountaineering (GGIM) at 35, Gaware scaled Kanchenjunga in 2019. In 2021, he unfurled the Indian tricolour on three 8,000m mountains in six months – Mt Annapurna-1, the world’s 10th tallest mountain in April, Mt Everest in May and Mt Manaslu, the world’s eighth highest peak, in September.
He joins city’s Ashish Mane in the five-8,000m-peak club.
“He (Gaware) never skipped the daily six-seven hours exercise regime,” said Umesh Zirpe, who has 40 years of experience in mountaineering, adding that the Wadgaonsheri resident regularly trekked 86km non-stop — from Sinhagad fort to Raigad, to Torna and back to Raigad.