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24th May 2019

Three more people die on Everest as overcrowding near the summit causes problems

Alan Loughnane

three dead on Everest

Very sad news.

Three more climbers have died on Mount Everest taking the death toll on the mountain to seven in the last week, expedition organisers and officials have confirmed.

It’s reported that three climbers died on Thursday while descending.

52-year-old Indian climber Kalpana Das reached the summit but died on the descent, while another Indian climber, 27-year-old Nihal Bagwan, also died on the way down from the summit.

It’s reported by AFP that Bagwan was stuck waiting near the summit for 12 hours in traffic and was carried down to camp by Sherpa guides, where he died.

A 65-year-old Australian climber also died on Thursday on the Tibet side of the mountain.

Record numbers are making the climb this year with 381 permits being handed out, each costing in the region of $11,000.

The large number of permits combined with poor weather restricting the number of climbing days has meant there’s been some congestion issues for climbers near the summit.

The three deaths follow the deaths of an American and an Indian climber on Wednesday.

Last week, Irish professor and climber Seamus Lawless fell near the summit and remains missing.

Efforts are continuing to find Seamus and a GoFundMe has been set up to help the family fund the search effort, raising more than a quarter of a million euro in the last week.

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