About 30 climbers have suffered frostbite or become ill on Mount Everest, after two more died from apparent altitude sickness.
Two Indian climbers have also been reported missing in the mountain’s so-called “death zone” near the summit.Despite the danger, the mountain’s most successful female climber reached the summit for the seventh time on Friday.
This climbing season is the first since an earthquake in Nepal last year that killed at least 18 people on Everest.
Nearly 400 climbers have reached the summit from the mountain’s Nepalese side since 11 May, thanks to good weather.
There have been successful ascents from the Chinese side too, including Lhakpa Sherpa, a Nepalese woman now living permanently in the US and working in a convenience store in Connecticut, who reached the peak from Tibet on Friday – breaking her own record for the most Everest climbs by a woman.
But the weekend’s dead and missing have highlighted the dangers of the world’s highest mountain.
Dutch climber Eric Ary Arnold died on Friday, after reaching the summit, while on Saturday, 34-year-old Australian woman Maria Strydom also died while descending from the peak. They are the first fatalities of the season.
Indian climbers Paresh Nath and Goutam Ghosh also went missing on Saturday, Wangchu Sherpa from the Trekking Camp Nepal agency in Kathmandu told the Associated Press.
Speaking to the BBC, Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepalese official at Everest Base Camp, said snow blindness, altitude sickness and fatigue are very common health issues at high altitudes, although most people recover once they descend the mountain.
However, it is not unusual for there to be a few deaths from these conditions every season, in addition to deaths from accidents and other reasons, he said. – BBC
