Indian Climber Dies After Mount Everest Bid, Toll Mounts To Eight This Season

An Indian climber, rescued from Mount Everest, has died in a hospital, a Nepali tourism official said on Tuesday. This raises the season’s death toll on the world’s highest mountain to eight.

Banshi Lal, 46, was plucked from the mountain last week and taken to a hospital in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. “He died at the hospital yesterday,” Rakesh Gurung of the tourism department told news agency AFP. Earlier, a British climber and a Nepali guide, were among the eight listed as missing but presumed dead.

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The latest fatality comes as the Everest mountaineering season nears its end, with the death toll relatively low compared to other years. Last year was the deadliest season on the mountain with 18 fatalities. Three more died climbing other Nepali peaks including a Romanian aiming for Lhotse, which neighbours Everest, while a French and a Nepali climber died on Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest mountain.

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Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds typically calm. All the Everest deaths occurred in areas above 8,000 metres, known as the “death zone”, where thin air and low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness.

Multiple records have also been broken this year, including by Nepali climber Phunjo Lamam, who reached Everest’s summit in 14 hours and 31 minutes, the world’s fastest ascent of the mountain by a woman. Climbers usually take days to reach the top of the 8,849-metre mountain. Nepal has issued more than 900 permits for its mountains this year, including 419 for Everest, earning more than $5 million in royalties.

(With agency inputs)