Four climbers died in separate incidents while ascending Mount Everest over the weekend of May 20–21.
Vladimir Strba, 50, of Slovakia and Francesco Enrico Marchetti, 54,of Australia, Ravi Kumar, 27, of India, and Dr. Roland Yearwood, 50, from the USA all died.
Yearwood had reached the summit in 2016. In 2015 he nearly died in an avalanche that killed 18 others. It is not clear if he reached the summit this time.
Ravi Kumar succumbed to altitude sickness on the way down from the summit, wandered off, and disappeared. His Sherpa guide also became ill, but made it back to camp.
Francesco Enrico Marchetti died on the Chinese side of the mountain. Climbing Everest had been his life’s goal. He nearly succeeded.
Vladimir Strba fell ill near the area called The Balcony, about 26,250 up the side of the mountain.
Over 100 climbers attempted to reach the mountain’s 29,035-foot summit over the weekend.
Six climbers have died during this year’s Spring climbing season (March through May,) which is considered to be an average number of fatalities.
