Everest Guide Killed in Horrific Fall as Deaths Mount

REUTERS/Phurba Tenjing Mount Everest claimed its third life in a fortnight after a young Sherpa guide tumbled into an icy chasm on the world’s tallest peak. Phura Gyaljen Sherpa, 21, lost his footing in the snow and plummeted into an ice fracture near Camp III, at around 7,200 meters (23,620 ft), Nisha Thapa Rawat, an official with Nepal’s tourism department, told Reuters on Tuesday. His death means five people have died across Nepal’s Himalayan range so far in April—yet officials say business is booming, with $15,000-a-pop Everest permits hitting 492 this spring, easily topping 2023’s total of 478. Earlier this month, Bijay Ghimire Bishwakarma, 35, was killed acclimatizing in the treacherous Khumbu icefall, while veteran climber Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, 52, died en route to base camp. The wider Himalayan toll has spread beyond Everest, too. American Johannesen Shelley, 53, perished last week on Makalu—at 8,463 meters (27,765 ft), the planet’s fifth-highest summit—and Czech mountaineer David Ronbinek was killed on its smaller sister, Makalu II. It comes after a giant ice slab last month blocked the route to Everest’s 8,849-meter (29,032 ft) summit for almost a fortnight, marooning hundreds of climbers at the mountain’s foot. Read it at Reuters Read more at The Daily Beast.

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