Early Saturday, Australian climber Maria Strydom, 34, who was trekking with her husband, also died while descending the mountain.
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Eric Arnold reached the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit on Friday, but then died on his descent from apparent altitude sickness near South Col, at a height of 8,000 meters (26,300 feet).
Almost 40 climbers including an Indian woman have developed frostbite during this Himalayan climbing season which saw about 400 mountaineers summit the world’s highest peak, officials have said.
Two other Indian climbers who had been missing on Mount Everest have been confirmed dead by Nepalese authorities.
As the brief spring climbing season drew to a close, Nepal’s famed sherpa guides – who rely on Everest for their livelihoods – said it brought fresh hope to the beleaguered mountaineering industry after fatal disasters effectively closed the peak for two consecutive years.
“Many climbers without any experience crowd Everest every year, and companies often use poor quality equipment… offering cheap packages to clients who are exposed to security risks”, Nepal Mountaineering Association Chief Ang Tshering Sherpa told Reuters.
He expects climbers to return to Everest next year following a successful season, and with the government agreeing to extend permits granted for 2014 and 2015.
“It took a big and risky effort but we were able to save her”, Sherpa said, adding that an Iranian climber identified only as S. Hadi had been brought to Kathmandu and was recovering in a hospital.
Maria Strydom, an Australian, suffered from altitude sickness after reaching camp IV, the final one before reaching the summit.
She climbed Everest six times between 2000 and 2006 before moving to the United States where she is a permanent resident. He is the third person to die on Everest in the past few days. More than 250 people have died climbing the mountain since 1953 and many of those were due to altitude-related illnesses.
Dr Strydom and Dr Gropel, both experienced climbers, were vegans determined to conquer the highest mountains on each continent. 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.
Foreigners from around the world are drawn to Nepal’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, ancient temples and, of course, Mount Everest.
On Thursday, May 19, Phurba Sherpa was killed in an accidental fall while clearing a route approximately 500 feet from the summit.
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The team tried to make it down to Camp III, the next lowest camp on the mountain, but Strydom collapsed and died before they could reach camp, reports CNN. Last year, he was among the climbers caught in a deadly avalanche on Everest base camp following a massive natural disaster.
