Mount Everest Spring Climbing Season's First Deaths Reported: Missing Mongolian Duo Found Dead

Bad weather and high winds hampered the search for the missing climbers below the summit, known as the death zone because of dangerously low oxygen levels.

Mount Everest is the world’s tallest summit at 8,849 metres and more than 6,500 people have reached its peak. ( Image Source :Representational Image/Getty )

Two Mongolian climbers have died in their bid to climb the Mount Everest, marking the first fatalities on the world's tallest mountain this spring climbing season. According to news agency AFP, sherpas have recovered the bodies of Usukhjargal Tsedendamba, 53, and Purevsuren Lkhagvajav, 31, who went missing last weekend. They were last reported to be in contact on Sunday evening from Camp 4, which is situated less than a kilometre below the summit. Four guides had been sent for their search and rescue.

Bad weather and high winds hampered the search for the missing climbers below the summit, known as the death zone because of dangerously low oxygen levels.

On Friday morning, Tsedendamba's body was found around an altitude of 8,600 metres.

"The second body was also found on Friday but needed verification. We confirmed it was him yesterday," Pemba Sherpa of 8k Expeditions, which organised the duo's climbing permits and base camp stay, told AFP.

The AFP report said Lkhagvajav's body was found near an area called the ‘balcony’, which is a small platform at an elevation of around 8,400 metres.

Pemba Sherpa said that they were now trying to bring the bodies down. He said the two men were climbing without any guides, and their walkie-talkies were found inside their tents. According to the AFP, Nepal’s tourism department issued a statement on Tuesday, in which it said that another team had spotted the pair “heading towards Everest summit” on Monday morning.

Mount Everest is the world’s tallest summit at 8,849 metres and more than 6,500 people have reached its peak, many of them multiple times. The mountain was first scaled by Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal in 1953. Over 300 people have died while attempting to scale the mountain.

Mountain climbing is a key source of revenue and employment in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 tallest peaks, Reuters reported. Two climbers have died on nearby Makalu, the world's fifth-highest peak, this year, according to the AFP report.