4 dead after scaling Mount Everest

By Deepak Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Nepal

Four climbers have died over the weekend near the top of Mount Everest, tour operators said Monday.

The climbers from United States, Australia, Slovakia and India were the latest victims in one of the deadliest weekends in the world’s highest peak.

A 50-year-old American medical doctor died early Sunday while attempting to reach the summit. Another from Slovakia, also 50, died Sunday afternoon in the area known as the Death Zone due to conditions that can lead to altitude sickness.

A 27-year-old Indian climber who was descending from the summit fell to his death and an Australian climber in his 50s was killed on the Chinese side of the mountain.

The weekend push to the summit also left dozens of climbers frostbitten and suffered altitude sickness, with many evacuated to Kathmandu, a local tour operator Temba Tsheri Sherpa told Anadolu Agency.

The deaths in the past month of two prominent climbers -- Ueli Steck, a 43-year-old Swiss alpinist and Min Bahadur Sherchan, who at 85 was seeking to be the oldest climber to reach the top of Mount Everest -- cast a shadow over this year's climbing season.

Last year, six climbers had died between April and May.

In 2014, an avalanche on Khumbu Glacier killed 16 climbing guides, which forced the season to be canceled. The devastating earthquake in 2015 that struck Nepal also killed 20 climbers at the base camp of Mount Everest, closing yet another season.

Some 5,000 climbers have reached the 8.848-meter peak that straddles between Nepal and China. About 300 people have died scaling the mountain.