Indian climber dies, 2 others missing on Mount Everest

Kathmandu, May 23: An Indian climber has died on Mount Everest and two others have gone missing, expedition organisers said today, taking the death toll from the ongoing Himalayan climbing season to the world's highest peak to five.

Subash Paul, who had fallen sick and was being taken down to safety, lost his life last night while being rescued to lower camps from near the summit point, Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at Nepal's Tourism Ministry said.

He had reached the 8,849-metre summit on Saturday but collapsed while descending the Hillary Step ice wall. He passed away in the region between Camp IV and Camp III.

Paul is the fifth climber to have died while attempting to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,850-meter, Shrestha said, adding that he was among four Indians who had gone missing on Saturday.

Expedition officials managed to locate Sunita Hazra yesterday but two other Indian climbers remained missing. Sunita was airlifted to safety. Paresh Nath and Goutam Ghosh, who were in the team of Paul, are untraceable since Saturday.

They were missing from South Cole which lies above 8,000 metre altitude and it was unlikely that they would come back alive, officials said. Meanwhile, Seema Goswami, another team member who developed frostbite, was brought to Kathmandu and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital here.

Two other Indian climbers, who were facing trouble, were rescued. During the ongoing Himalayan climbing season, five people have died so far. A Dutch and an Australian woman died of altitude sickness Friday and Saturday respectively.

A Nepali guide died on Thursday after he slipped and fell 2,000 metres. Another Indian climber had died a few days ago. More than three dozen other climbers have developed frostbite or become sick near the summit in the past few days.

Nearly 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.

Last year, devastating earthquake caused the climbing season to be canceled and climbing attempts were largely abandoned in 2014 after an avalanche above the base camp killed 16 Sherpa guides.

Last year at least 19 climbers were killed in the avalanche triggered by the earthquake.

PTI