But within a few hours Mal was suffering exhaustion and Bill had injured himself falling on diamond-hard green ice on the Lhotse Face.

As the expedition's official doctor, he had to remain some 1,500 feet below, at Camp Seven, on the mountain's Lhotse Face.

The western flank of Lhotse is known as the Lhotse Face.

From 22,000 feet to 25,000 feet the standard route ascends a sheer, treacherous ice slope known as the Lhotse Face.

Immediately above rose the Lhotse Face, a vast, tilted sea of ice that gleamed like dirty chrome in the dawn's slanting light.

As he squatted, he lost his footing on the ice and went hurtling down the Lhotse Face.

Because only a single rope snaked up the Lhotse Face, however, it wasn't easy to pass slower climbers.

Had he clipped into the rope with his safety tether it would have opened under his body weight and sent him tumbling down the Lhotse Face.

An ice ax with a leash designed for glacier axes is required to cross the Lhotse Face and climb to the summit.

Lowe supervised the preparation of the Lhotse Face, a huge and steep ice face, for climbing.