Share

Body of Australian climber stuck on Mount Everest

Another team member, an Indian woman who had fallen sick, was resting at a camp at a safer altitude.

Advertisement

An Indian climber who reached the summit of Nepal’s Mount Everest blamed recent deaths on a lack of oxygen and “proper planning” from the agencies facilitating the expeditions.

Most climbers have finished their attempts to reach the summit, but those trying were having problems with low visibility, wind and snow.

Discussions with authorities were under way to find Paresh Chandra Nath (58) and Goutam Ghosh (51), said Wangchu Sherpa, the managing director at Trekking Camp Nepal.

The body of Garsfontein matriculant and Australian lecturer Dr Maria Strydom might never be brought down from Mount Everest where she died over the weekend, the expedition company said on Monday.

Mr Furtengi said the company was run by a group of brothers who were very experienced on Mount Everest and had regularly led successful climbs to the summit. He wrote he hoped to become the first Dutchman to climb Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. The end of May usually brings the monsoon season and bad weather that makes climbing the mountain impossible. At least 19 climbers were killed in the avalanche triggered by the natural disaster then.

Australian climber Robert Gropel, husband of Maria Strydom, 34, who died while descending from the s …

She climbed Everest six times between 2000 and 2006 before moving to the United States where she is a permanent resident. Climbing routes on the mountain were closed in both 2015 and 2014 after several natural disasters claimed the lives of both climbers and sherpas.

“Other climbers reported they might have spotted the bodies in the area”, Mountaineering Department official Gyanendra Shrestha said, and noted it was unlikely they would have survived the harsh conditions on the mountain.

In addition to the four known deaths, there are two Indian climbers missing since Saturday.

More than 4,000 climbers have reached the treacherous peak since 1953, when Everest was first scaled by New Zealand explorer Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Before their trek, the couple told reporters in Australia that one reason they’d gotten into mountain climbing (they’d already summited Denali and Mt. Kilimanjaro) wanted to show people that vegans could be as healthy and strong as anyone else.

Around 30 climbers have suffered frostbite or become seriously ill on the mountain in recent days.

Advertisement

“The last two disasters on Everest were caused by nature, but not this one”, Ang Tshering told AP.

Mount Everest with a white cloud on top is seen from Gokyo Ri at sunset