Together with Ernst Reiss he made the first ascent of Lhotse (8,516 m), the fourth highest mountain in the world, on 18 May 1956. Luchsinger was a member of the Swiss Everest Lhotse Expedition in 1956. On arrival, Luchsinger fell ill with appendicitis. In the monastery of Tengboche, the expedition doctor Eduard Leuthold managed to cure Luchsinger without antibiotics. The expedition established several high camps at the end of April / beginning of May. On May 18, Luchsinger and Reiss reached the summit of the Lhotse, Ernst Schmied and Jürg Marmet on May 23, and a day later Dölf Reist and Hansruedi von Gunten made the second and third ascent of Mount Everest.
In 1980 he was able to climb with the Dhaulagiri another eight-thousander. In 1983, Luchsinger died of pulmonary edema during the ascent of Shishapangma.
Fritz Luchsinger was born March 8, 1921 in St. Gallen as the second child to Fridolin Luchsinger (1890-1989) and Lina Aemisegger (1896-1975). He was a training officer in the Swiss army. His 2nd great-grandmother Barbara Geiger (1802-1869) was the sister of Jakob Geiger (1791-1851) who emigrated in 1851 to USA and died aboard enroute to New Orleans. Jakob Geiger has a large offspring in New Glarus area in Wisconsin.
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