Strydom previously made it to the top of some of the tallest mountains in the world, including Denali and Kilimanjaro, and she was determined to scale the seven highest summits on Earth, of which Everest ranks first. The critics pointed that they were not receiving enough iron and protein in their diet due to their censure of animal related products.
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The two climbers who died were on the same expedition team. Team member Arnold Coster was accompanying the body.
A Sherpa guide from the agency coordinating the expedition told The Associated Press it was unlikely Nath and Ghosh had survived conditions on top of Everest.
Strydom and Paul also apparently suffered altitude sickness, with Strydom dying on Saturday while Paul succumbed on Monday. She was a professor at Monash Business School in Australia.
Phurba said more details were not available because of poor communications with people on the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) mountain.
Tourism Department Sudarshan Dhakal disputes the criticism, saying energy loss and altitude sickness means that climbers are not well prepared, and that the deaths had nothing to do with accidents or crowds.
Dr Strydom, a 34-year-old finance lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, had been exhausted and weak when she died at an altitude of about 7,800 metres near Camp 4, according to tour company Seven Summit Treks.
A university lecturer, Maria Strydom, had reportedly died from lack of oxygen in Nepal on Saturday, May 21, 2016, during the last leg of her expedition which had been meant to prove that vegans are not “malnourished and weak”.
“Mount Everest is a huge mountain, and it can accommodate a lot of people at one time”, said Alan Arnette, a mountaineer who has attempted to climb Everest four times, reaching the summit in 2011.
Arnold was from Rotterdam, according to his Twitter account, which was updated on Friday with a post that he had reached the summit on his fifth try.
In 2014, a devastating avalanche killed 16 sherpas.
Nepal’s government had issued permits this year to 289 climbers, each of whom paid $11,000 to the government, plus another $25,000-$50,000 to an expedition company that provides guides, equipment and, often, bottled oxygen to use at high altitudes where the atmosphere is thin.
May is the most common month to attempt a climb because there is usually less wind-but it’s not any warmer, with temperatures hovering from -30 to -5 depending on the altitude.
More than 300 people have now died climbing Everest and neighbouring Lhotse peak since 1953. But more than 250 people have died in the attempt.
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“The last two disasters on Everest were caused by nature, but not this one”, Ang Tshering told AP. But over 260 have died trying to reach the heavens.
