Lovell Mountaineers Go To Everest On A Whim, Summit Nearby 20,000-Foot Peak

Two friends from Lovell, Wyoming, decided to travel to Mount Everest on a whim—and ended up summiting a nearby 20,000-foot peak. Kyle Leithead, 46, and Pete Baxendale, 39, completed a 17-day trek that took them to Everest base camp and to the top of 20,075-foot Lobouche East, southwest of Everest. “More than the scenery, the people are amazing,” Leithead told Cowboy State Daily from a hotel in Kathmandu. “They are so humble, they have next to nothing—and they are happy with it.”

The adventure began when Baxendale posted on social media after watching something about Everest. “He was kicked back in his recliner eating a bowl of soup and said, ‘This can’t be that hard’—joking around,” Leithead recalled. “And I responded, ‘Let’s go!’ And he was on board.”

The pair trained for three months, focusing on stair machines at the gym. Leithead started with a 30-pound vest and worked up to 50 pounds, doing 150 to 200 floors per session, three or four times a week. Their original plan was simply to spend a night at Everest base camp, but they soon learned that many guide companies do not have permits for overnight stays. They found one that did, and added the Gokyo loop (five lakes with great views of Everest), a trek through Cho La Pass at 17,782 feet, and a summit attempt on Lobouche East.

Their actual trek began April 6 with an unplanned helicopter flight from Kathmandu to Lukla after plane flights were canceled due to weather. They spent nights in tea houses along the way. Before reaching Everest base camp on trek day 12, they had already summited 17,600-foot Goyko Ri, crossed the second largest glacier in the world, and climbed through Cho La Pass.

Everest base camp was a highlight. Leithead said they could hear the Khumbu Icefall cracking and popping as it constantly moved. The camp is built on a glacier and is constructed and torn down each year to provide local jobs. The route across the ice fall—using ladders and ropes—had not yet been established; the rope team said what normally takes 20 days had already taken two months due to a precarious ice wall.

Three days after base camp, they summited Lobouche East. The climb required ropes, crampons, and double-layer mountaineering boots but no supplemental oxygen. Leithead said the lack of oxygen was “as real as could be.” His legs, strong throughout the trek, “were just starving for oxygen” above 18,000 feet. At the top, they unfurled a Wyoming flag.

Two others in their party had to be evacuated due to altitude sickness. Back in Kathmandu, Leithead and Baxendale enjoyed long hot showers—they had only three during the 17-day trek. Food was good, but they avoided meat in tea houses because it is brought in raw on the backs of yaks.

Leithead said the trek was “full of roses along the way.” He and Baxendale are already talking about returning, possibly for a more technical climb of 22,349-foot Ama Dablam or trekking 26,781-foot Manaslu. “My hope would be that people don’t push off their dreams,” Leithead said. “They just go ahead and make them happen.”