Irish climber dies while descending from Mount Annapurna in Nepal

By Anadolu Staff

ANKARA (AA) – An Irish climber died while descending from the 8,091-meter (26,540-foot) Mount Annapurna in Nepal, local media reported on Tuesday.

Noel Hanna, 56, one of Ireland's most successful mountaineers, breathed his last on Monday night at Camp IV on Mount Annapurna, the 10th tallest mountain on Earth, after he returned from the summit point, local English daily Himalayan Times reported.

His body was brought to the capital Kathmandu from Camp IV on Tuesday, the newspaper reported citing expedition organizers.

He was an experienced climber, having scaled Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, 10 times in his career.

In 2018, he became the first person from Ireland to successfully summit and descend K2, the second-tallest mountain on Earth.

Hanna had scaled the Annapurna peak on Monday.

Baljeet Kaur, the record-holding Indian woman climber, who went missing near Camp IV while descending from the summit point, has been rescued alive.

“She has suffered from frostbite and is now being rushed to CIWEC Hospital from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu,” Pasang Sherpa, chairman at Pioneer Adventure, which organized the expedition, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Another four climbers, including two Pakistanis, who were part of an eight-member team that scaled Annapurna peak on Monday, were also evacuated from the high camps after they complained of mountain illness while descending.

Pakistani climbers Shehroze Kashif, and Naila Kiani along with their Indian teammate Arjun Vajpai were evacuated after they fell ill while descending from the summit point, Karrar Haidri, Secretary of Alpine Club of Pakistan, the country's official mountaineering association, told Anadolu.

Tucked between China and India, Nepal is home to eight of the 14 peaks above 8,000m.