Pavel Kostrikin, a member of Alex Abramov’s team, died in Everest’s Camp 2 yesterday evening, according to The Himalayan Times. There was no accident or fall reported. Kostrikin apparently fell sick with AMS, the paper said. The Russian climber was completing his final acclimatization trip before launching a summit push.
Team leader Alex Abramov has not yet commented on the incident. Earlier today, he noted on social media that his team had completed their last acclimatization round by staying a night at Camp 2 before climbing further up to Camp 3. He explained that his team is flying down to Namche Bazaar tomorrow to rest before their summit push.
The large Russian team at Base Camp. Photo: Alex Abramov
Kostrikin had attempted Everest twice before. Both times, he aborted due to exhaustion, according to Alan Arnette.
Summit push strategy
Meanwhile, the massive summit push on Everest is slowly unfolding. According to sources in Base Camp, some small teams left for the upper mountain yesterday. Others will follow today. The general expectation is that summits will extend through several days.
In addition, most of the big outfitters consulted by ExplorersWeb have divided their clients into smaller groups whose members will climb at diffferent speeds or on different dates.
