An experienced alpinist from Northern Ireland was found dead and another climber from India went missing on the same mountain in central Nepal on Tuesday. It was the second fatal climbing accident in a week as the mountaineering season in the Himalayas got off to a deadly start.
The Northern Irish climber, Noel Hanna, who had scaled Mount Everest 10 times, was found dead inside his tent at Camp 4 of Annapurna after scaling the 26,545-foot-tall mountain without supplemental oxygen on Monday, officials said. Camp 4 is the final camp before the summit.
Yubaraj Khatiwada, a tourism official in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, said the cause of Mr. Hanna’s death was unclear. The climber had just descended from Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest peak, according to his expedition agency, Seven Summit Treks.
Mr. Khatiwada also said that two Indian mountaineers went missing on Monday after losing radio contact with the base. Dozens of rescue workers were mobilized to locate the climbers, and one of them, Baljeet Kaur, was later rescued at 24,156 feet. Ms. Kaur was airlifted to base camp and then flown to a hospital in Kathmandu, where she was reported to be in stable condition, officials said.
The other climber, Anurag Maloo, was still missing, Mr. Khatiwada said. The search for him was expected to resume on Wednesday.
Climbers regard scaling Annapurna as a daunting challenge because of the frequent risk of avalanches. Deaths are not uncommon, either from the snowslides, storms or altitude sickness. Before last season, only 369 people had reached the summit of Annapurna, while 72 had died climbing.
Last week, three Sherpas were believed to have died while climbing Mount Everest after a column of ice hit them, collapsing their path and burying them under the mounds of snow. The accident occurred near the Khumbu Icefall, a glacier near the 29,032-foot-tall mountain’s base camp.
Rescuers found the accident site but couldn’t approach because it is considered one of the most avalanche-prone areas of Everest.
According to the Himalayan Database, an archive of mountaineering expeditions, six people died climbing Nepal’s mountains in the spring of 2022.
Tourism officials in Kathmandu said that summiteers have had to delay their expeditions for weeks because of unusual weather conditions. That has left them stranded on the base for weeks.
Mountaineers have said descending Annapurna has become more challenging this year because of late snow and rainfall during the winter, making the routes slippery and more dangerous. Sherpas have struggled to clear routes up to the summit.
Sameer Yasir contributing reporting from New Delhi.
Source : Nytimes
