Indian climbers return from Everest

Record ID: 102240

  • Title: Indian climbers return from Everest
  • Date: 24th May 2016
  • Summary: KATHMANDU, NEPAL (MAY 24, 2016) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF CLINIC SIGN READING (In English): "CIWEC CLINIC. TRAVEL MEDICINE CENTER. RECEPTION" (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIAN TEAM CLIMBER, RATNESH PANDAY, SAYING: "The weather was very critical this year, like, after the weather reports, it was not at all actually working. When we were at the top, the temperature, we were at Camp Four, the temperature was somewhere around minus 30, and when we were at the top, the wind speed was 30 km per hour. So again, the day before would be totally clear, but when we were at the top, it was vice versa. So again you should be mentally and physically prepared for that." EXTERIOR OF HOTEL THAMEL SECURITY OUTSIDE DOOR TO HOTEL (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIAN TEAM CLIMBER, NAVA KUMAR PHUKON, SAYING: "They started for the summit, 20th evening, after reaching me, then they started." REPORTER QUESTION: "You met them at the South Col before they went up?" INDIAN TEAM CLIMBER, NAVA KUMAR PHUKON, SAYING: "Yes." REPORTER QUESTION: "And when they went up they only have two bottles of oxygen?" INDIAN TEAM CLIMBER, NAVA KUMAR PHUKON, SAYING: "I don't know the exact number of bottles of oxygen. But when the news I heard that they are lost, they are not coming back from the balcony. They slept there, all four of the Indian climbers, slept there. I heard they only carry two bottles of oxygen." REPORTER QUESTION: "But two of them came back?" INDIAN TEAM CLIMBER, NAVA KUMAR PHUKON, SAYING: "Two of them came back, one is alive now, this Sunit Hazra, she is at Norvic Hospital, Kathmandu." JOURNALISTS SITTING IN FRONT OF NAVA KUMAR PHUKON
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2016 11:01
  • Keywords: Everest climbers deaths Balcony Indian Nepal
  • Location: KATHMANDU, NEPAL
  • City: KATHMANDU, NEPAL
  • Country: Nepal
  • Topics: Climbing,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014J626O7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A 43-year-old Indian mountaineer died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest, in the third fatality on the world's tallest mountain in as many days since climbing resumed after last year's avalanche tragedy at Base Camp.
    Subash Paul, who climbed the 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) on Saturday (May 21), perished the next day due to exhaustion, Wangchu Sherpa of the Trekking Camp Nepal company said on Monday (May 23).
    Ratnesh Panday, 30, an adventure sports enthusiast from the central Indian city of Indore, who scaled Mount Everest on May 21, said poor weather forecasts and heady winds were making the climb really tough.
    Nava Kumar Phukon, 44, another Indian mountaineer and an employee of the government sports department at Sibsabar in the country's northeastern Assam state, climbed the mountain on Friday (May 20).
    He confirmed meeting four Indian climbers, one of whom he said was Paul, and said two were still missing.
    "They started for the summit, 20th evening, after reaching me, then they started," Phukon said. "Two of them came back, one is alive now, this Sunit Hazra, she is at Norvic Hospital, Kathmandu," he added.
    An Australian woman and a Dutch national have also died since Friday due to altitude sickness in the notorious 'death zone' where the air is so thin that only the fittest can survive without supplementary oxygen.
    Hiking officials and climbing veterans say the deaths raise questions about the preparations and safety standards of some climbing operators, with cut-price local companies competing for business as international outfits scale back operations.
    This year's Everest campaign has been hit by high winds on some days when climbers had been counting on the weather 'window' to open to make their summit bids before the monsoon sweeps in next month.
    Queues have formed on the final stretch to the summit, which is often secured by a single rope line, leading veterans to complain that slow and inexperienced climbers were holding up others and putting them at undue risk.
    Hiking officials blame the government, which charges $11,000 for each Everest permit, for failing to spend any money on safety measures. The government collected $3.1 million from 289 climbers as permit fees so far this year.
    But officials blame inadequate preparation on the part of climbers.
    While fatalities are not unusual, there are fears the latest casualties could again hit mountaineering in Nepal.
    At least 18 people died a year ago when an earthquake sent a massive snow slide careening into Base Camp, while an avalanche in the treacherous Khumbu Icefall killed 16 guides in 2014. The back-to-back tragedies halted climbing on Everest.
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