With the spring climbing activities gaining momentum on different mountains, four foreign climbers lost their lives in the last five days, according to police and expedition organisers.
Originally published in The Himalayan Times
By RAJAN POKHREL KATHMANDU:
Two mountaineers – Patrik Mattioli (Switzerland) and Jon David Johnson (Austria) – died after falling from a fixing rope into an icy crevasse on Mt Shisha Pangma (8027 m).
“The incident occurred at an altitude of 6,200 m on April 24 while the duo fell into the crevasse while they were moving up from advanced base camp on Mt Shisha Pangma,” an official at Active Holiday Treks, which handles their expedition from Kathmandu, told THT Online.
According to him, team leader Julian Benedikt Beermann (Swiss) was rescued by support staff. “Bodies of the deceased have not been recovered yet,” he added.
Similarly, two trekkers from Japan and Korea died in the Mt Everest region.
According to Lazimpat-based Cosmo Trek Pvt Ltd, Japanese climber Hidenori Hagi died on Friday night at Mt Everest base camp. “Hagi (67) breathed his last while undergoing treatment at a base camp clinic.”
His body was airlifted to Kathmandu for postmortem while family members also arrived here to receive his body, an official said.
The Korean climber also died after suffering from altitude sickness on Tuesday while he was returning from Lobuche peak in Khumbu region. “Police are trying to assert details of the deceased,” District Police Office in Solukhunmbu said.
According to Lakpa Sherpa, a member of the medical team assigned by the Himalayan Rescue Association, at least seven persons were evacuated while over 110 patients received treatment at the base camp clinic in last three weeks.
“Most of the evacuated patients were suffering from high altitude pulmonary edema and high altitude cerebral edema,” he said.
Thaneshwor Bhandari, an official at Feriche-based Aid-post told THT Online over phone that nine patients were also evacuated to Kathmandu from Feriche while the clinic had treated over 250 patients till date.
As of Wednesday, 708 climbers of 92 teams obtained climbing permits to attempt summitting different mountains in the spring season, Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at the Department of Tourism said.
More than 800 climbers had abandoned their climbing missions last spring after the devastating April earthquake and its aftershocks struck the country killing nearly 9,000 people.
