Scottish climber dies on Everest
A Scottish climber died near the summit of Mount Everest today, Nepalese mountaineering officials said.
Robert William Milne, a 49-year-old software engineer from Edinburgh, was about 1,200ft short of the 29,035ft 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 today, becoming possibly the last climbers to reach the peak this season.
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 today 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.
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.