A British mountaineer has been rescued from the world’s third highest peak during an expedition which saw a French climber lose her life.
Adrian Michael Hayes was on his way down from the summit of Mt Kanchenjunga in the Nepalese Himalayas on May 10 when he reportedly began to experience severe altitude sickness.
The climber was rescued by Sherpa guides and taken down to a high-altitude camp until better weather allowed for him to be evacuated, the Himalayan Times reports.
Meanwhile a French national on the same climb, named in local media as Margareta Morin, also fell ill with altitude sickness.
The 63-year-old could not be rescued due to difficult weather conditions, according to local guide Yogendra Tamang.
Morin had no prior experience of climbing mountains over 8,000m, according to reports.
Kangchenjunga’s summit is 8,586m high and conditions were said to have been unfavourable on the day of the climb.
Hayes was among a group of 10 climbers who reached the summit on Saturday.
The summit of Mt Kangchenjunga in the Nepalese Himalayas is 8,586m – making it the world’s third tallest peak
He had been part of a team of 13, including six foreign climbers, also including Kosovan, two Iranians, and an Emirati, as well as seven local Sherpas.
It comes after an experienced American climber lost his life in the Himalayas last week.
Alexander Pancoe, 39, from Illinois, suffered a suspected cardiac arrest at Camp II on Mt Makalu on the night of May 4.
He had been climbing the world’s fifth tallest peak to raise funds for a children’s cancer charity, and died while preparing for his summit attempt.
The highly experienced climber, who was a brain tumor survivor, had just completed an acclimatisation rotation to Camp III.
‘Alex felt uncomfortable while he returned from the camp three of the 8,485-metre mountain completing his acclimatization rotation,’ Iswari Paudel of Himalayan Guides confirmed to the Himalayan Times.
Expedition officials told the Independent that Pancoe was preparing to rest for the night when he suddenly felt unwell.
His teammates attempted to revive him for over an hour, yet he tragically remained unresponsive.
American mountaineer Alexander Pancoe, 39, who was climbing to raise funds for a children’s cancer charity has died on a Himalayan peak while preparing for his summit attempt
The father of two young children was on the challenging climb to raise $27,838 (the height of Mt Makalu in feet) for Lurie Children’s pediatric blood cancer program in his hometown of Chicago.
Pancoe had also been fighting chronic myeloid leukemia at the time of his death.
He was the founder of Peaks of Mind, a non profit that combines climbing to ‘raise awareness and make a difference.’
