The body of deceased octogenarian mountaineer Min Bahadur Sherchan, who died on in his bid to reclaim his title as the world’s oldest person to scale Mt Everest, has been brought to Kathmandu Sunday for postmortem.
The body of deceased octogenarian mountaineer Min Bahadur Sherchan, who died on in his bid to reclaim his title as the world’s oldest person to scale Mt Everest, has been brought to Kathmandu Sunday for postmortem.
Sherchan, 85, died at Everest Base Camp after suffering a heart attack according to initial reports. He was pronounced dead at 5:14pm Saturday.
The body was airlifted from Lukla to Kathmandu via Fishtail air at 10:00 am this morning, said Deputy Superintendent of Police, Madhav Prasad Budhathoki.
Sherchan, a former British Gurkha, first made a historic climb in 2008 at the age of 76 to become the oldest person atop the world’s highest mountain. But five years later, Sherchan lost the title to Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura who summited the 8,848-metre peak at the age of 80 in 2013.
Born on June 20, 1931 at Bhurung-9 in Myagdi district, Sherchan during a recent press conference in the Capital in the run-up to his Everest expedition, had said he would “return and certainly return” after climbing the mountain.
According to his expedition handler, Sherchan had not suffered any kind of problem throughout his journey to the 5,380 metres base camp. He left Kathmandu on April 1 to head for the base camp. “Everything was fine when we spoke to him this afternoon. He had said ‘no problem’ at all,” said Thapa.
Sherchan is the second casualty of this climbing season on Everest, which runs from late April to the end of May. Legendary Swiss climber Ueli Steck died on April 30 when he fell from a steep ridge during an acclimatisation climb.
The last rites of Sherchan would be performed as per the Buddhist ritual after postmortem at Teaching Hospital, it is learnt.
17.13°C Kathmandu
