Body of missing Mongolian climber found

AFP :
Rescuers found the body of one of two missing Mongolian climbers on Mount Everest on Friday, expedition organizers said, the first confirmed fatality on the world’s highest peak this mountaineering season.

Usukhjargal Tsedendamba, 53, and Purevsuren Lkhagvajav, 31, were last in contact Sunday evening from Camp 4, which is situated less than a kilometer (3,300 feet) below the summit.

Tsedendamba’s body was found around an altitude of 8,600 metres (28,215 feet) on Friday morning after days of search and rescue operations that had been hampered by bad weather.

“It seems he was returning from the summit. Search is continuing for the other climber,” Lakpa Sherpa of 8k Expeditions, which organised the duo’s climbing permits, told AFP.

Sherpa said the two men were climbing without guides and that their walkie- talkie had been found in their tent.

Nepal’s tourism department said in a statement on Tuesday that another team had spotted the pair “heading towards Everest’s summit” on Monday morning.