This photograph taken on 3 May 2024 shows mountaineers at the Khumbu Glacier during their ascend to Mount Everest’s summit in Nepal. A 54-year-old Nepalese climber known as “Everest Man” reached the peak of the world’s highest mountain for a record 30th time on 22 May 2024, three decades after his first summit. (Tsering Pemba Sherpa / AFP)
- A Kenyan climber, Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui, and his Nepali
guide, Nawang Sherpa, died near Everest’s summit, increasing this season’s
death toll on the mountain to at least four. - Other recent fatalities include a Nepali climber, Binod
Babu Bastakoti, and a Romanian climber on Lhotse. - The search for a British climber and his Nepali guide
continues.
A
Kenyan and a Nepali climber have died close to Everest’s summit, tourism
officials said Thursday, taking this season’s toll on the world’s highest
mountain to at least four.
Joshua
Cheruiyot Kirui, 40, and his Nepali guide Nawang Sherpa, 44, went out of
contact Wednesday morning and a search team was deployed on the 8 849-metre high
mountain.
“The
team have found the Kenyan climber dead between the summit and the Hillary
Step, but his guide is still missing,” Khim Lal Gautam, chief of the
tourism department’s field office at the base camp, told AFP.
Another
Nepali climber, Binod Babu Bastakoti, 37, died at about 8 200 metres on
Wednesday, a statement from the tourism department said.
Search
parties are also still looking for a 40-year-old British climber and his Nepali
guide who went missing Tuesday morning after a snow mass collapsed as they
descended from Everest’s peak.
A
Romanian climber died in his tent on Monday during a bid to scale Lhotse, the
fourth-highest mountain in the world.
Everest
and Lhotse share the same route until diverting at around 7 200 metres.
Two
Mongolian climbers went missing this month after reaching Everest’s summit and
were later found dead.
Two
more climbers, one French and one Nepali, have died this season on Makalu, the
world’s fifth-highest peak.
Nepal
has issued more than 900 permits for its mountains this year, including 419 for
Everest, earning more than $5 million in royalties.
More
than 500 climbers and their guides have already reached the summit of Everest
after a rope-fixing team reached the peak last month.
China
also reopened the Tibetan route to foreigners this year for the first time
since closing it in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nepal
is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of
adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds typically calm.
More
than 600 climbers made it to the summit of Everest last year, but it was also
the deadliest season on the mountain, with 18 fatalities.
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