Nine Nepalese guides reach top of Mt. Everest; two potters die at Mt Makalu

Kathmandu / May 11: Nine Nepalese guides reached the top of Mount Everest on Wednesday, becoming the first climbers in two years to conquer the world’s highest mountain after two successive natural disasters.

Media reports quoted Nepal Mountaineering Department official Gyanendra Shrestha, who is at the base camp, as saying that the group reached the 8,848-meter summit on Wednesday.

The Nepalese Sherpa guides are hired by expeditions to carry equipment and fix ropes on the icy and rocky slopes for the use of the foreign climbers.

Nearly 300 foreign climbers and their guides are attempting to reach the summit from Nepal this year. Many are expected to succeed as favorable weather is forecast this month. May is the most popular month to climb, coming between the harsh winter and dangerous monsoon season.

The two disasters largely emptied the peak. Last year’s climbing season was scrubbed, and nearly all of the climbers in 2014 abandoned their attempts after the avalanche. The only team who reached the summit that year from the Nepal side was a Chinese woman and her five Sherpa guides.

Meanwhile, two potters were killed while climbing the world’s fifth largest peak Mt Makalu in Sankhuwasabha district.

Fifty-one-year-old Lakpa Sherpa, of Nurpu-5 in Makalu, and 35 year-old Dawa Tenji Sherpa, of Jubing-1 in Solukhumbu, were found dead inside camp two of Makalu base camp at an altitude of 8,300 meters, said DSP Gautam Kumar KC.

The two potters had come to climb the mountain from Thamserku Trekking Agency. Police have suspected that the duo could have possibly died due to lack of oxygen.

The rescue operation has been hampered by snowfall, DSP KC said though a helicopter has been kept stand by. He added that it is impossible to conduct the rescue operation through land-route and there is not telecommunications facility at the incident site.