Two Indians die while descending from Everest summit, says official

Two Indian mountaineers, Arun Kumar Tiwari and Sandeep Are, have died while descending from Mount Everest after becoming exhausted and falling ill during their descent.

Two Indian mountaineers who summited Everest have died while descending, an official said on Friday.

The climbers, identified as Arun Kumar Tiwari and Sandeep Are, were exhausted while they were coming down from the peak and could not be saved despite the best efforts of their guides, said Rishi Bhandari, secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal.

It appears that Are summited on Wednesday and Tiwari on Thursday around 5.30 pm, Bhandari told PTI.

The guides ''worked really hard'' but were not able to save them, he said.

Tiwari died near the Hillary Step, just below the summit, after falling ill during his descent on Thursday evening while being assisted by four Sherpa climbers, said Nivesh Karki, Director at Pioneer Adventures, which organised the expedition.

Are summited on Wednesday but became unwell during the descent. He was rescued by Sherpa guides from the South Summit and died shortly after arriving at Camp II early Friday, Karki said.

Efforts are underway to bring back the bodies of the deceased climbers to Kathmandu, Karki said.

With this, the death toll on Everest has reached five in this season. Earlier, three Nepali climbers died on Mt Everest.

On Wednesday, three Indians, including Are, were part of 274 climbers who summited the 8,848.86-metre peak. It was a new record for the highest number of ascents ever recorded in a day. The other two were Tulasi Reddi Palpunoori and Ajay Pal Singh Dhaliwal.

The following day, on Thursday, India's Lakshmikanta Mandal also reached the world's highest peak.