Sunday 22 May 2016

altitude sickness



An Australian and a Dutch climber have died of altitude sickness on Mount Everest.

The Australian climber was on her way down from Camp 4 to Camp 3 when she fell ill and died on Saturday afternoon.

Pasang Phurba Sherpa, a board director at Seven Summit Treks, which organised both climbers expeditions, said she was in her mid-thirties.





'After reaching the summit yesterday she said she was feeling very weak and suffering from a loss of energy... signs of altitude sickness,' Sherpa said, according to ABC.

The Dutchman, who died on Friday, has been named as 35-year-old Eric Arnold.

Both climbers are believed to have died due to altitude sickness.




Sherpa said the bodies were at an elevation of 8000 metres and it would be a couple of days before they could airlift them to Kathmandu and hand them over to relatives, who had been informed.

They are the first fatalities on the world's highest peak since expeditions resumed this year.

Everest expeditions in 2014 were cancelled after 16 sherpas died in an ice-fall avalanche.

In 2015, another avalanche triggered by a 7.8-magnitude quake killed 19 mountaineers at Everest Base Camp, prompting the cancellation of all trips.


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