Four (4) climbers die in 4 days on Mount Everest.

This year's climbing season on the world's highest peak resumed in April after a two-year hiatus.

 

 

Crew member Phurba Sherpa (no relation to the journalist of the same name) fell to his death. The 25-year-old had been working to fix a route about 150 meters near the summit when he fell, according to Mingma Sherpa, the Nepal rescue team leader who was at the Everest Base Camp.

Friday

Eric Arnold, 36, of the Netherlands died at night while heading back after a successful summit on Everest, according to Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, the owner of Seven Summit Treks. A heart attack was suspected, he said.

Arnold was a triathlete based in Rotterdam, according to his Twitter bio.

Saturday

An Australian woman Maria Strydom who was also traveling with the Seven Summit Treks started suffering altitude sickness. She had reached Camp IV, the final camp before the summit.

Strydom, 34, could not move upward anymore, and a rescue attempt to reach her failed, according to Tashi Sherpa. The finance professor at Monash Business School in Australia died Saturday before she could come back down to Camp III.

She gave an interview with the school in March detailing her ambition to climb the highest seven summits on each of the continents. She had already climbed Denali in Alaska, Aconcagua in Argentina, Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey and Kilimanjaro in Africa. She had planned to climb Everest with her husband, inspired in part by questions the couple received about their vegan diet.

Her mother, Maritha Strydom, who had been posting updates about her daughter and son-in-law's expedition, said on Facebook: "I'm just too devastated to communicate, sorry."

She posted hours later that she was "praying" for her son-in-law, who the Australian media reported was battling "against congestive heart failure."

Sunday

Subash Paul, 44, died at Base Camp II from altitude sickness, according to Wangchu Sherpa, Managing Director of Trekking Camp Nepal.

Paul was part of a team (consisting of four Indian climbers and four Sherpas) that also saw two members -- Paresh Chandra Nath and Goutam Ghosh -- go missing Saturday night.

"It is not clear what happened. We believe the weather suddenly deteriorated at some point, and the team lost direction," Wanchu Sherpa said.

An official at Nepal Tourism Department Gyanendra Shrestha said a helicopter search was not possible because they were too high up the mountain.

"We are trying to communicate with other expedition teams around that level to locate the missing climbers," Shresthra said.

The fourth climber from the team, Sunita Harizan, was rescued and is undergoing treatment at base camp.

(SOURCE CNN.)