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American, Swiss climbers die on Mount Everest
Kathmandu-based Seven Summit Treks identified the American as Puwei Liu, 55, and the Swiss national as Abdul Waraich, 41. Both died Wednesday, it said.
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A record 373 foreign climbers have been cleared to scale Everest from the south side during a narrow window of good weather this month -- netting the impoverished Himalayan nation more than $2 million in fees. (Shutterstock/File)
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n American and a Swiss mountaineer have died while attempting to climb Mt. Everest, their expedition organizer in Nepal said Thursday, making them the first fatalities on the world's highest peak this season.
Kathmandu-based Seven Summit Treks identified the American as Puwei Liu, 55, and the Swiss national as Abdul Waraich, 41. Both died Wednesday, it said.
"Waraich summited the mountain and was returning when he died from exhaustion below the summit," Tashi Sherpa of the expedition agency said by phone. "Liu died at Camp 4 of the mountain from exhaustion."
Nepal's popular spring season for mountaineering was canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
This season saw the first summits of Mt. Everest on Friday when Sherpas fixed ropes to the top. A Nepali climber, Kami Rita Sherpa, who was among them, scaled the mountain for a record 25th time the same day.
Hundreds of mountaineers are acclimatizing on the lower slopes of Mt. Everest hoping to take advantage of favorable weather windows in the coming days to scale the 8,848.86-meter mountain.
Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 mountains taller than 8,000 meters, and has issued 408 climbing permits for Mt. Everest for the spring season, which lasts until the end of this month.
