Two Indian climbers from Kolkata died near the summit of Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, on Wednesday due to altitude sickness, said reports. Although attempts were made to revive them, they couldn’t be saved in harsh weather conditions. The two were identified as 48-year-old Biplab Baidya and 46-year-old Kuntal Karar and were part of a five-member team of mountaineers from West Bengal. The climbers were at a height of about 8,000 metres (26,246 feet) when they died.
Reports said Baidya had scaled Mt Kanchenjunga but died due to altitude sickness on the way down while Karar did not make it to the summit and died while trying to climb the peak. The expedition organiser, a private company, has sent a team of Nepali high altitude climbers to recover the bodies of the deceased.
Pasang Sherpa, the manager of Peak Promotion Private Limited, said another climber, Chilean Rodrigo Vivanco, has also gone missing from above Camp IV of the same mountain. He said a team had already left Camp IV to rescue Vivanco. A day earlier, a 10-member team of a Pune-based mountaineering club successfully summitted Mount Kanchenjunga.
Hundreds of climbers attempt climbing different Himalayan peaks during spring which ends this month. On Tuesday, for the first time in the country’s mountaineering history, 48,000 mountaineers in Nepal recorded their first summit of the season on the same day on Tuesday. Four mountains, including Mount Everest (8,848 m), Mount Makalu (8,485 m), Mount Lhotse (8,516 m) and Mount Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), were scaled successfully.
Reportedly, Kanchenjunga is the third highest peak in the world and the second highest in Nepal with an altitude of 8,586 metres (28,169 feet). It was first climbed by a British team of Joe Brown and George Band in 1955. The peak consists of four summits.
