3 die while descending Everest
(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-23 21:08
Three climbers from Brazil, Russia and France died while descending Mount
Everest on separate expeditions in the past week, a Chinese official said
Tuesday.
The climbers, whose names weren't released, reached the summit of Everest and
died of exhaustion on the way down, said Zhang Mingxing, secretary-general of
Tibet Mountaineering Association.
"It is easy for climbers to feel exhausted after they have spent too much
energy to reach the peak. They have to face the severest test from nature and
their own physical strength," he said by phone from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
Last week, officials said 42 climbers took advantage of improved weather to
reach the summit from its Nepalese side.
American, Australian, Austrian, British, Canadian, German, Korean,
Philippine, Polish, Spanish and Swiss climbers, along with their Sherpa guides,
reached the 29,035-foot summit, said Rajendra Pandey at Nepal's Ministry of
Tourism in Katmandu.
May is considered the best month to climb Everest. Climbers in Nepal have to
complete their mission by May 31 before the weather deteriorates during monsoon
season.
Since Everest was first conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa
Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953, more than 1,400 climbers have scaled the peak,
and some 180 people have died trying.
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