Everest 2023 Season – Deaths
Unfortunately, with each Everest Season comes deaths from the multiple dangers on the mountain and this year has been a bad one for deaths of climbers and sherpas on this dangerous peak.
Here is a summary for Everest 2023 deaths from what we have seen.
1,2,3. 12th April: Lakpa Sherpa, Tenjing Sherpa, and Badure Sherpa, died when the upper section of the Icefall collapsed – worked for ‘Imagine Nepal’
4. 1st May 1: Jonathan Sugarman USA, 69, died at Camp 2 climbing with ‘International Mountain Guides.’
5. 16th May: Phurba Sherpa passed away just above Camp 3. He was part of the the Nepal Army Mountain Clean-up campaign.
6. 17th May: Victor Brinza, Moldova, died at the South Col with Nepali operator ‘Himalayan Traverse Adventure.’
7. 18th May: Xuebin Chen, China, 52, died near the South Summit with Nepali operator ‘8K Expeditions.’
8. 18th May: Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus, India, 59, who intended to climb Everest but left Base Camp ill and died in Lukla, so might not officially be classed as an Everest climbing death.
9. 20th May: Ag Askandar Bin Ampuan Yaacub, Malaysia, climbed to South Summit, then became ill and died. He was climbing with Nepali operator ‘Pioneer Adventures.’
10. 21st May: Jason Bernard Kennison, Australia, 40, died near the Balcony. He was with ‘Asian Trekking.’
11. 23rd May: Ang Kami Sherpa, Cook who died at Camp 2. He worked for ‘Peak Promotion.’
12. 24th May 24: Dr. Pieter Swart, South Africe, 63, died soon after turning back at the South Col.
Missing – Feared Dead
Solo Hungarian climber Suhajda Szilard went missing from the Hillary Step after attempting to scale Mt Everest without supplemental oxygen or personal sherpa support on May 24. A team of sherpa rescuers along with a helicopter are searching for him.
Deaf and mute Malaysian Hawari Bin Hashim, 33, has been missing since May 18 when he arrived at Camp IV from the summit point, while Shrinivas Sainis Dattatraya, an Indian-Singaporean climber, went missing from 8,500m on Mt Everest.
Dattatraya reportedly fell from 8,500 metres into the Tibetan side. Efforts are still on to search for missing climbers.
Janakpur-based Ranjit Kumar Shah and his Sherpa guide Lakpa Nuru Sherpa have been out of contact from the South Summit since May 25. The duo’s GPS was last tracked near South Summit at around 1:00am, sources said.
