Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal January 15, 2020. FILE PHOTO | REUTERS
Kathmandu, Nepal
A Russian climber has died on Mount Everest, officials said Sunday, in the second fatality on the world's highest peak this season.
The man, who has not been named, died on Saturday after falling ill while acclimatising at a camp below the summit at 6,553 metres (21,499 feet).
"His body has been brought to the base camp and will be flown to Kathmandu once the weather improves," Bhisma Raj Dhungana, an official at Nepal's tourism department, told AFP.
"Though the cause of the death is not known yet, it could be due to complications related to altitude sickness."
The fatality was also confirmed by Mingma Gelu Sherpa of Seven Summits Treks, the agency that handled his expedition.
It was the second death on the Nepal side of the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) mountain this climbing season.
Last month a Nepali climber, Ngimi Tenji Sherpa, who was carrying equipment uphill, was found dead on the mountain.
Eleven Nepali climbers reached the summit on Saturday, the first of hundreds of climbers expected to scale the world's highest mountain from its southern approach in the coming weeks.
Nepal has issued 316 permits to mountaineers including 17 Russians for this year's spring climbing season, which runs from mid-April to the end of May.
On average, around five climbers die every year on the world's highest peak.
But in 2019, 11 people died, with four of the deaths blamed on overcrowding that year.
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