Climber killed on Everest

2005-06-05 18:18

Katmandu - A Scottish climber was killed on Sunday near the summit of Mount Everest, Nepalese mountaineering officials said.

Robert William Milne, a 49-year-old software engineer from Edinburgh, was about 400 metres short of the 8 850 meter summit of the world's highest mountain when he died, said mountaineering department official Umesh Singh.

Milne suddenly collapsed and died, Singh said, quoting the climber's Sherpa guide. Further details weren't immediately available.

Milne was the third person this year to die trying to scale Everest. Last month, an American climber died after falling into a crevasse while a Canadian mountaineer died after an apparent heart attack.

Earlier, officials said an American lawyer and two Nepalese Sherpa guides scaled Mount Everest on Sunday, becoming possibly the last climbers to reach the peak this season.

Claybourne Fox Clarke, an attorney from New Mexico accompanied by Nepalese Sherpa guides Tenji, 23, and Lakpa, 25, reached the summit at 10:00 local time (04:15 GMT).

Climbing season on Everest traditionally ends May 31, as warming temperatures make the snow soft and dangerous for climbers.

The season was marred by bad weather, but after a late improvement in conditions climbers agreed to keep the route open until Sunday when they had to descend to the base camp to pack up a series of ladders spread across Khumbu Icefall - a dangerous section of ice blocks with deep crevasses.

About 94 climbers have scaled the peak since Monday from the Nepalese side of the mountain on the south. Several climbers also climbed from the Chinese side on the north.

Since New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first reached the top of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, more than 1 400 climbers have scaled the peak. About 180 people have died trying.

- AP