By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : A 59-year-old Japanese climber who had scaled Mt Everest twice in the past died while attempting to summit a third time, making the death toll this month on the world’s highest peak rise to three.
Takashi Ozaki, a cameraman living in Hong Kong, was attempting to summit the 8,848m peak Thursday with two Sherpa guides when he began to have breathing difficulties only about 250m from the top, Nepal’s tourism official Tilak Pandey told IANS.
He started to turn back, then he began staggering and collapsed, Pandey said.
The body lay on the high slope Friday with Sherpas seeking permission from his wife in France to mount an operation and bring the dead climber down.
Ozaki had summited Mt Everest twice in the past, once from Tibet without using bottled oxygen. He had also climbed seven more of the 14 highest peaks in the world.
Thursday had been a bad day with strong winds and many expeditions decided to return to safety below and wait for the weather to improve.
The Japanese’s death comes just three days after Nepal’s former foreign minister Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay also succumbed to high altitude sickness while making the Everest attempt. Upadhyay, 82, was attempting to become the oldest Everest conqueror.
Earlier in May, American Rick Hitch, 55, was also killed by high altitude sickness.
A 72-year-old Japanese grandmother and a 58-year-old Chinese male climber have already abandoned their attempts and turned back.
Two Indian climbers are also said to have been facing breathing trouble and could throw in the towel.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at [email protected])