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AFP
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The recent death toll has already eclipsed the total for 2018
Officials say a British man died on Saturday on Mount Everest – bringing to 10 the total death toll this season on the world’s largest peak. Robin Haynes Fisher, 44, reportedly fell ill while descending from the summit. An Irish man, Kevin Hynes, also died on Everest on Friday. Nepal is facing scrutiny for issuing a record 381 permits, at $11,000 (£8,600) each, for this year’s Spring season.There have been reports of overcrowding and queuing climbers near the summit. This week a photograph showing the tailbacks on Everest has been shared widely on social media. Mr Fisher made it to Everest’s summit on Saturday morning but collapsed and died only 150m down from the peak, his expedition company confirmed. “Our guides tried to help but he died soon after,” Murari Sharma of Everest Parivar Expedition said.
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AFP/ Project Possible
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In total 20 have died in this year’s Spring season on the region’s mountains
A tourism official told The Himalayan Times that his Sherpa guide had also complained of feeling ill, and was rescued to a lower camp.Mr Hynes, 56, from Ireland died on Friday on the northern Tibet side. The father-of-two passed away in his tent at 7,000m (23,000ft) after turning back before reaching the mountain’s peak.Other deaths from this week include four from India, one person from Nepal, an Austrian and an American.A second Irish man, professor Séamus Lawless, is presumed dead after falling on the mountain last week. Search operations to recover his body are still ongoing. Conditions this year have been worse than usual, with high winds leaving a large number of climbers a narrow time frame to reach the summit. Rising numbers of people climbing – and dying – on Everest has led for calls for permits to be limited.The number of people climbing Everest in 2019 could exceed last year’s record of 807 people reaching the summit.