The Russian 7 Summits Club Expedition, led by Alex Abramov, has posted some cheery updates about their Everest success. These huzzahs include some obscure local records, such as the first woman from Murmansk.
They didn’t mention that one of their Sherpa guides, Wong Dorchi Sherpa of the Sankhuwasabha District in eastern Nepal, died shortly before reaching Camp 4. He was on his way down from the summit.
Abramov himself did not summit with the rest of his group. He chose to stay behind at 8,500m with member Dmitry Livanov, who complained of chest pain. Later, Abramov confirmed that Livanov, a former Minister of Education in Russia, was evacuated to the hospital.
Dorchi Sherpa is the fourth casualty on Everest this year. Another Sherpa guide fell fatally into a crevasse below Camp 2 last week. Two other climbers, Abdul Waraich of Switzerland and Puwei Liu of the U.S. died, much like Dorchi Sherpa, shortly after summiting.
Waraich and Liu’s cause of death was described as “exhaustion” — a kind of grab-bag, non-medical term for any death in the high mountains not from falling, rocks, obvious Acute Mountain Sickness, etc. We don’t know whether COVID factored into any of these deaths.
