At least 5 killed on Mount Everest in deadly week on world’s highest peak

Lieutenant-Colonel Awang Askandar Ampuan Yaacub, 56, is among the three who were confirmed to have died on Mount Everest this week. PHOTO: COURTESY OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL AWANG ASKANDAR AMPUAN YAACUB

The past week has been especially bleak for those scaling Mount Everest.

Four climbers – a Malaysian, a Chinese, an Indian and a Moldovan – and a Sherpa guide are confirmed to have died, and at least two – a Singaporean and another Malaysian – have been reported missing.

In total, at least nine have died so far on Mount Everest in what has been a deadly climbing season on the world’s highest peak.

Lieutenant-Colonel (Lt-Col) Awang Askandar Ampuan Yaacub, 56, died on Friday as he was making his final ascent from the so-called death zone above 8,000m. He was the Malaysian Civil Defence Force’s Kedah director.

Sherpas tried to get him back to Camp 4 when he became ill after climbing past the South Summit. He died before he could reach the camp, according to The Himalayan Times.

Camp 4, which sits on a plateau at about 8,000m, is the final base prior to the final ascent to the summit.

Former Kedah football coach Azraai Khor Abdullah told Bernama that Lt-Col Awang Askandar had wanted to plant the flags of Malaysia and the Civil Defence Force at Everest’s summit.

“He told me how proud he would be to wave the... flags atop Mount Everest. Malaysia lost a good leader,” he added.

Mr Lakpa Sherpa, a senior official from the 8K Expeditions company, told Reuters that Chinese climber Xuebin Chen, 52, died on Thursday, also during a push towards the summit from 8,000m.

Ms Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus, a 59-year-old teacher from India’s western Maharashtra state, also died on Thursday.

She had wanted to set a record as the first Asian with a pacemaker to scale Everest, but she could not climb higher than 5,800m.

Ms Leopoldina Jesus was assessed to be not in shape to make the ascent, but she wanted to push on.

She got sick and had to be airlifted to a hospital, where she died.

A deaf and mute Malaysian climber, meanwhile, was reported to have been missing since Friday after successfully reaching Everest’s summit on Thursday.

Mr Muhammad Hawari Hasim, 33, went missing after he had already descended to Camp 4, according to Mr Nivesh Karki, executive director of Pioneer Adventure.

Mr Muhammad Hawari bin Hasim, 33, went missing after he had already descended to Camp 4. PHOTO: BERNAMA

Mr Karki said the guides who were with Mr Hawari went out in search of another Malaysian climber, presumably Lt-Col Awang Askandar, but when they returned to Camp 4, Mr Hawari was no longer there.

Mr Karki said messages had been sent to all mounting climbing operators at Everest who might have got word about Mr Hawari.

On average, around five climbers die on the 8,849m-tall Everest from March to May.

But so far in 2023, the toll has reached nearly double that little more than halfway through the season.

The area above 8,000m is known as the “death zone”, where thin air and low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness, and it is notorious for its difficult terrain.

A Moldovan climber, Mr Victor Brinza, died on Wednesday at Camp 4 en route to the top, and another Nepali member of a team clearing trash from the mountain, Mr Phurba Sherpa, died on his return from the summit on Tuesday.

Three Nepali climbers were killed in April when a block of glacial ice fell and swept them into a crevasse as they were crossing the treacherous Khumbu icefall on a supply mission.

A 69-year-old American mountaineer, Mr Jonathan Sugarman, 69, also died on May 1, also during an acclimatisation rotation.

Close to 100 summited on Friday, with hundreds more to go as the weather window begins to close.

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