Alex Pancoe, 39, of Chicago became the first casualty on Makalu this year. He reportedly died of cardiac arrest at Camp 2 last night.
Pancoe was on his final acclimatization round before his summit push. He started feeling unwell. He stopped at Camp 2, where he suffered a cardiac event and died, outfitter Himalayan Guides told The Himalayan Times.
Saulius Damulevicius of Latvia, who is climbing Makalu without supplementary oxygen, saw the American at 6,900m, the highest point he and the rest of the Madison Mountaineering team reached.
“I met Alex [Pancoe] on my way down from Camp 3,” Damulevicius told ExplorersWeb. “I sat with them at 6,900m and observed them going down from there to Camp 2. [Alex] looked strong and in a good mood, and went down at a good pace. I understand that everything happened very fast.”
Damulevicius noted that the climbers in Pancoe’s team didn’t reach Camp 3 (7,400m).
“They had two nights at Camp 1, a night at Camp 2 + ‘touch 7,000m.’ They planned to have another night at Camp 2 before going down to wait for a summit window,” he said. Damulevicius said that this is a standard procedure for oxygen-assisted climbers.
Pancoe had previously completed the Seven Summits, did Last Degree trips to both Poles, and climbed several peaks in Alaska. He summited Everest in 2019.
A leukemia survivor, Pancoe leaves a wife and two children.
