Among the many summit success stories from Mount Everest today is the news of the first death of a foreign climber on the world’s highest mountain this spring season. The Nepalese expedition operator Snowy Horizon Treks announced that a 45-year-old client from the Philippines died last night on the South Col. The mountaineer had been preparing for his summit attempt when he passed away, it said. He was probably suffering from high altitude sickness.
According to the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism, two Nepalese employees of expedition operators had already died in hospital in Kathmandu earlier this season after being evacuated from Everest Base Camp by helicopter.
Starting signal for Brits with xenon pre-acclimatisation
According to official figures, around 70 people reached the highest point on earth at 8,849 metres on Wednesday alone. Many summit attempts on Everest are also expected in the coming days.
This Friday, the four Britons Garth Miller, Alistair Carns, Anthony Stazicker and Kevin Godlington are also planning to fly to Nepal to climb Everest and return to the UK in just one week. This is the much-discussed project of the Austrian expedition operator Furtenbach Adventures. During the pre-acclimatisation of the British, the inert gas xenon was also used.
Update 16 May: Also this Friday, the operator Snowy Horizon Treks reports a death in its team. A 45-year-old Indian had died on the way back from the summit – below the former Hillary Step (8,790 meters), the company informed adding that he had shown symptoms of high altitude sickness and refused to descend any further.
