Ernst Reiss was a Swiss mountaineer, who together with Fritz Luchsinger

Fritz Luchsinger

Fritz Luchsinger was a Swiss mountaineer. Together with Ernst Reiss he made the first ascent of Lhotse , the fourth highest mountain in the world, on 18 May 1956...

 was the first to climb the fourth highest mountain on earth in 1956.

On 18 May 1956, Reiss and Luchsinger successfully climbed the 8516 meter-high Lhotse

Lhotse

Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain on Earth and is connected to Everest via the South Col. In addition to the main summit at 8,516 metres above sea level, Lhotse Middle is and Lhotse Shar is...

, the fourth highest mountain on earth. Lhotse is connected to Mount Everest

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

 via the South Col

South Col

The South Col usually refers to the southern col between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the first and fourth highest mountains in the world. When climbers attempt to climb Everest from the southeast ridge in Nepal, their final camp is situated on the South Col...

 on the border of Tibet and Nepal.

Reiss was a member of the 1956 Swiss Everest–Lhotse expedition. At the end of April and start of May, the expedition erected some high camps. From the last high camp at the "Geneva Spur

Spur (mountain)

A spur is a subsidiary summit of a hill or mountain. By definition, spurs have low topographic prominence, as they are lower than their parent summit and are closely connected to them on the same ridgeline...

" on 18 May, Luchsinger and Reiss climbed the summit of Lhotse mountain. Their colleagues Ernst Schmied and Jürg Marmet were successful on 23 May and one day later Dölf Reist and Hansruedi von Gunten made the second and third climb on Mount Everest.

Reiss died in Basel, Switzerland, on 3 August 2010, aged 90.