Australian mountaineer falls to her death in Nepal

KATHMANDU, May 29 (Reuters) An Australian woman died while descending from the world's eighth highest mountain, Mount Manaslu, in Himalayan Nepal, the tourism ministry said today.

Sue Fear, a 43-year-old trekking guide from Sydney, had reached the 8,163 metre (26,780 ft) summit of Manaslu, and was making her way down yesterday when she fell to her death in a crevasse, the ministry said.

Fear was a highly experienced mountaineer and had climbed Mount Everest three years ago.

She was the first Australian woman to scale Manaslu.

REUTERS CH KP2134