KATHMANDU, APRIL 18
A renowned climber from Ireland died in the high camp of Mt Annapurna last night taking the season's death toll to two in the world's tenth-highest peak.
According to expedition organisers, Noel Hanna, a 10-time Everest summiteer from Northern Ireland breathed his last at Camp IV after he returned from the summit point last night. Record-holding Indian woman climber Baljeet Kaur went missing near Camp IV while descending from the summit point, organisers said.
Pasang Sherpa, chairman at Pioneer Adventure, said that Baljeet went missing above Camp IV while descending from the top as she scaled the peak without using supplemental oxygen. She is the first Indian mountaineer to scale four 8,000-metre peaks in less than a month.
"We just sent three helicopters to find Baljeet," Sherpa said. According to him, the fate of the climber was still unknown.
According to Mingma Sherpa, chairman at Seven Summit Treks, Noel Hanna, the first person from Ireland to reach the summit of K2 during the winter season, breathed his last in Camp IV last night.
Efforts are underway to bring their bodies back to base camp, organisers said.
Meanwhile, chances of finding Indian climber Anurag Maloo, who went missing after falling from 6000m into a crevasse while descending from Camp IV yesterday, are slim, said base camp officials.
Details to follow.
