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http://news.discovery.com/adventure/climbers-everest-die-120521
Four People Die on Mt. Everest
Four climbers from Germany, South Korea, China and Canada have died
returning from the summit of Mount Everest, tour agents and officials
said Monday, with one other mountaineer also missing.
The 61-year-old German and the South Korean aged 44 died on the south
face of the world's highest peak on Sunday, Ang Tshering Sherpa of the
Kathmandu-based Asian Trekking adventure agency said.
"We are sad to announce the death of Eberhard Schaaf, of Germany, a
t the south side of the summit of Mount Everest," Sherpa said.
"The medical staff at the Himalayan Rescue Association believe the cause
of death to be altitude sickness."
Sherpa said South Korean Song Won-Bin, who had been missing since Saturday,
died at "The Balcony", an area near the top of the 8,848-meter (29,029-feet)
peak.
The Seoul-based Yonhap news agency said Song had collapsed due to altitude
sickness and fallen off a cliff, quoting a diplomat at the South Korean
embassy in Kathmandu.
It said the climbers were part of a team of old classmates from the same
high school in the central city of Daejeon.
About a dozen members flew to Nepal at the end of March to mark their
school's 50th anniversary by climbing the peak. They were due to return
home later this month.
Tilak Pandey, a tourism ministry official at Everest base camp, said
separately that a 33-year-old Nepali-born Canadian woman named Shriya Shah
had also been killed on Sunday.
Shah was born in Kathmandu and grew up in Mumbai, India, according to her
website. She lived in Toronto and described herself as "an entrepreneur,
political activist, social worker, and above all, a daring lady."
Speaking of her Everest expedition, she wrote: "This is my dream and
passion, and want to do something for my country. Nothing is impossible
in this world."
Another ministry official, Deependra Paudel, said 55-year-old Chinese
climber Ha Wenyi had also been found dead, at 8,600 meters.
"Most of these deaths occur due to high altitude sickness," said Sherpa,
adding that a Nepali mountain guide was also missing.
NEWS: Mayo Clinic's Newest Lab: Mount Everest
"Climbers spend their energy on the ascent and they are exhausted and
fatigued on the descent."
Mountain guides from Sherpa's company told him of the discovery of the body
of another climber on the north side of Everest but no further details were
available to verify the death.
Everest's "death zone", the region above 8,000 meters, earned its name
because it is almost impossible to survive the biting temperatures and
lack of oxygen there for more than 48 hours.
Conditions have been particularly hazardous this year, said Nepalese
government official Gyanendra Shrestha, with high winds and heavy snowfall
delaying the construction of makeshift bridges over precipices.
"The first expedition reached the top only on May 18 whereas last year it
was on May 5," he said.
"With so many people trying to reach the top there was a traffic jam.
The next forecast for good weather is between May 24 and 26. By May 28,
the ice will start melting and expeditions will have to be called off."
Two Nepali Sherpa climbers died on Everest in April, one falling into a
crevasse at 5,900 meters and the other succumbing to altitude sickness at
base camp.
Nearly 4,000 people have climbed Mount Everest since 1953 when Sir Edmund
Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first scaled it.
More than 200 people have died on the slopes of the giant peak. |
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