Canberra mountaineer Andrew Lock feared for his life during a dramatic descent from one of the world's deadliest mountains at the weekend.
Lock became the first Australian to climb all 14 of the world's tallest mountains and just the 18th in history when he reached the summit of the 8027m Mt Shishapangma in Tibet late on Friday.
For two days Lock's supporters held fears for his safety as fierce storms enveloped the peak before he made contact on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking from the safety of base camp yesterday, Lock told The Canberra Times he feared he wasn't going to survive the ''longest night'' of his life on Friday.
''We couldn't find our way back down so we made a decision to bivouac, so we cut a ledge out of the face of the mountain then sat on our backpacks for the night hoping the weather wouldn't get any worse,'' Lock said of the descent.
''Luckily it didn't, it snowed on us all night long and was bitterly cold, the longest night of my life, but the wind didn't pick up, which was good because it would've killed us.''
The smallest of the world's ''8000ers'', Mt Shishapangma is one of the most difficult to climb.
It has claimed the lives of 23 mountaineers since 1983.
Lock, 48, was forced to negotiate a knife-edged ridge and avalanches during a 12-hour ascent of the peak.
After a brief stay on the summit, Lock and his Welsh climbing partner, Neil Ward, were forced to dash down Shishapangma in the blinding blizzard as night fell before making camp at 7600m.
''By [the time we got to the summit] there was cloud all around and wind so we took a couple of pictures, shook hands and had to quickly down-climb as safely as we could,'' Lock said.
''We just got back to the backpacks by dark but unfortunately the wind blew up and buried all our tracks.
''As we were down-climbing it was snowing ... was getting heavier and heavier, the flakes were reflecting the light from the headlamps and we couldn't see anything.
''The next morning there was enough light to see by and we climbed back down to camp three, got in at 8.30am.''
Amazingly, apart from severe dehydration, both climbers escaped the descent unscathed.
It was Lock’s third attempt at Shishapangma, ending a 16-year quest that began with a successful climb of the world’s second-highest peak, K2, in 1993.
Lock’s conquest of Shishapangma is notable as the first ascent of the peak by an Australian and the first ascent to the true summit for almost three years.
‘‘It was a really worthwhile final mountain to climb,’’ he said. ‘‘ Because there’s a false summit, most climbers go for that then claim the mountain, very few go for the true summit because the true summit is so hard.
‘‘I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was, it was a magnificent challenge. It was just fantastic to finish that mountain and touch the summit because it is so rarely climbed.’’ News of Lock’s success created a flood of congratulations from the mountaineering fraternity.
The first Australian to climb Everest, Tim Macartney-Snape, was among the well-wishers.
Lock credited a lecture by Macartney-Snape as the inspiration behind Summit 8000.
‘‘I think it’ll be a while before anyone in Australia matches Andrew’s feat,’’ Macartney-Snape said.
Lock now has plans to conquer Everest without oxygen in autumn next year. In doing so, he would become only the 10 person to summit all 14 of the ‘‘8000ers’’ without supplementary oxygen.
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