Vilnius-based businessman Mindaugas Šatkauskas climbed the world's highest Mount Everest in the Himalayas on Wednesday night and became the seventh Lithuanian to do so.
This was confirmed to BNS by M. Šatkauskas himself, who has now descended to the intermediate camp.
"Yes, I climbed. 20.50:4 p.m. we started from C4.45 (fourth camp - BNS), at XNUMX:XNUMX a.m. I was on top. As on every peak, I raised the Lithuanian flag", said the mountaineer who contacted via satellite.
He said that he has not yet finished climbing, that tonight he will try to climb the fourth peak of the world - Lotse.
"As far as I know, no one has ever raised the Lithuanian flag on this peak. So I hope that with God's help I will be able to reach this peak as well", said M. Šatkauskas.
"I feel great, health is also close to that, there are nuances with the cough, but I will take the rest of the time," he added.
The organizer of his expedition, 14 Peaks Expedition, announced Mr. Šatkauskas' achievement on the Facebook social network on Wednesday morning.
The record states that a Lithuanian summited Everest together with three Sherpas from Nepal.
In 1993, the highest mountain in the world was conquered by Vladas Vitkauskas, the first in the Baltic countries, Saulius Vilius, Aldas Baltutis, Darius Vaičiulis, Edita Horrell and Stanislovas Vyšniauskas also did it.
"He (M. Šatkauskas - BNS) left at the beginning of April, traveling with local operators. Before that, he also climbed the 6461-meter-high Mera peak (Himalayas - BNS) in the Khumbu region for acclimatization," said Tadas Jeršovas, head of mountaineering expeditions and friend of M. Shatkauskas.
“This is a commercial expedition, he paid and joined a commercial expedition. (…) It costs about 47 thousand to climb from Nepal, about 57 thousand from Tibet. JAV dollars. The permit alone costs 11 thousand. US dollars," he added.
According to the expedition leader, Everest is the second mountain over eight kilometers high that M. Shatkauskas has conquered. If the expedition is successful, Lotse will be the third.
Parliamentarian Bronislovas Matelis announced on the social network on Wednesday that one Ukrainian woman climbed together with M. Shatkauskas, but "more information will be available later".
Everest is the world's highest peak in the Himalayas, reaching 8848 meters.
Lotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world, located in the Everest massif, between Tibet and Nepal. The height of this peak is 8516 meters.
Author Dominykas Biržietis
