The deaths of an Irish and a British climber on Mount Everest took the toll from a deadly week on the world’s highest peak to 10, expedition organizers and officials said yesterday.
British climber Robin Fisher, 44, “made it to the summit this morning, but collapsed and died only 150 meters down,” said Murari Sharma of Everest Parivar Expedition.
Another expedition organizer confirmed the death of an Irishman on Friday on the Tibet side of Everest.
Photo: AFP / Project Possible
The man decided to return without reaching the summit, but died in his tent at the North Col pass at 7,000m, the organizer said.
Also on Friday, an American climber who fulfilled his dream of climbing the highest mountains on each of the seven continents died of probable altitude sickness on the way down from Everest, mountaineering officials said.
Don Cash, 55, became ill at the summit and was treated there by his two Sherpa guides, Pasang Tenje Sherpa, head of Pioneer Adventure, which provided the guides, said.
“When he was on the top he just fell. The two Sherpas who were with him gave CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] and massages,” he said. “After that he woke up, then near Hillary Step he fell down again in the same manner, which means he got high-altitude sickness.”
Altitude sickness is caused by low amounts of oxygen at high elevation and can cause headaches, vomiting, shortness of breath and mental confusion.
Four climbers from India and one each from Austria and Nepal have already died on Everest in the past week.
Another Irish mountaineer was missing and presumed dead after he slipped and fell close to the summit.
They were part of hundreds of foreigners and their Sherpa guides attempting to scale Everest and other Himalayan peaks during the popular spring climbing season, when only a few windows of good weather each May allow them the best chance of success.
A traffic jam of climbers in the Everest “death zone” has been blamed for at least four of the deaths, heightening concerns that the drive for profits is trumping safety.
Nepal issued a record 381 permits for mainly foreign climbers, costing US$11,000 each, for the climbing season.
An estimated 600 people had reached the summit via the Nepal side by Friday, a government official said, based on information from expedition organizers.
Each climber with a permit is assisted by at least one Sherpa guide, adding to the summit logjam.
At least 140 others have been granted permits to scale Everest from the northern flank in Tibet, according to operators.
This could take the total past last year’s record of 807 people reaching the summit.
Cash, from Utah, had a long-held dream to climb the seven summits — the highest mountains on the seven continents — his daughter Danielle Cook wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
Santa Bir Lama, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said Cash’s body was still near Hillary Step.
“Many others who are at the summit are still there. When the Sherpas come down, then they can bring his body down,” he said.
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