“Mount Everest’s summit will once again remain elusive for Nobukazu Kuriki, the tenacious Japanese climber who was almost a month into his fifth attempt to scale the world’s highest mountain when perilous conditions on Saturday forced him to abandon his latest quest”.
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“I realised if I kept going, I wouldn’t be able to come back alive”, he wrote. Kuriki, 33, said he would tackle the final stretch overnight, ascending into the “death zone” -located above 8,000 metres, notorious for its hard terrain and thin air -and summit around dawn on Sunday.
Mr Kuriki, who prefers to climb alone with minimal gear, lost all of his fingers and one thumb after spending two days stuck in a snow hole on the mountain in 2012. It was the fifth time he had tried to reach at the top of the Mount Everest in previous years.
“I decide to descend”, he posted on his official Facebook page early Sunday.
The 33-year-old is the first person to attempt to climb Everest since the devastating natural disaster which hit Nepal in April, according to the BBC.
He said shortly after arriving in Nepal: “I do feel nervous and afraid”.
The world’s most unsafe mountain has long been the scourge of the climbing community with Sagarmāthā as it is known in Nepal or Chomolungmahas as it is known in Tibet claiming over 250 lives. “Someone will have to carry you up”, he said.
Mountaineers usually begin their summit attempts late at night, which allows them to descend in daylight, lowering the risk of them falling to their deaths due to exhaustion.
But Everest has in recent years drawn multitudes of climbers wanting to overcome their disabilities and achieve the formidable feat.
The Nepalese government closed Everest for the remainder of the spring climbing season after the quake, marking the first time in more than four decades that no one made it to the top of the mountain. “This is the purest form of climbing and it is worth the extra danger”, he said. There have been only three successful autumn summits on Everest in the last 15 years.
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The April 25 quake that caused the fatal avalanche killed almost 8,900 people in the Himalayan nation.
