A Filipino climber is the first fatal victim of the climbing season at Everest, the world’s largest mountain, announced on Thursday (15) the Nepalese authorities.
Philipp Santiago, 45, who was preparing to climb to the 8,849 meter summit, reached the last camp (IV), located at 7,950 meters, on Wednesday night, told Himal Gautam, from the Nepal Tourism Department, to AFP.
“He died where he was resting,” Snowy Horizon Treks and Expedition, AFP Bodha Raj Bodha, which is organizing body transfer to base camp.
Everest’s climbing season began on May 9. This year, Nepal has granted 456 permissions for the spring season (northern hemisphere, from April to June) to hundreds of climbers from around the world.
Most climbers on Everest slopes are accompanied by Nepalese guides, which increases the number of climbers that appear on the main route to the summit to almost 900 in just a few weeks.
Since the route was drawn last week, more than 50 climbers have reached the summit, enjoying a brief favorable climate window.
Last year, more than 800 climbers reached the summit, 74 of them on the Tibetan side, a growing number that attracted criticism of purists for overcrowding and the commodification of the climbing on the symbolic mountain.
