KATHMANDU, April 18 (IANS) India’s record-holding Jeet Kaur climber died near Camp IV of Mount Annapurna while descending from the summit point, organizers said.
Another Indian climber, Anurag Malu, 34, from Kishangarh in the Indian state of Rajasthan, was also missing after he fell from a height of about 6,000 meters while descending from Camp III in the same mountain on Monday.
Malu’s whereabouts are still unknown, but a search is underway, his tour organizer Seven Summit Treks said.
Kaur posted a photo on Twitter on April 9 where she said she is taking a rest at the Annapurna base camp.
The Himachal mountaineer had many feathers in her hat. The 27-year-old broke the record for the first Indian woman to climb the summit of Mount Manaslu without oxygen, the first Indian woman to climb the summit of the real Mount Manaslu, and the youngest woman to reach the summit of Mount Manaslu without oxygen.
She was also the first Indian to climb the Six 8000m Summits in the World and the fastest Indian to climb the Six 8000m Summits in the World (5 months and 2 days).
Pioneer Adventure Chairman Pasang Sherpa said that Baljeet died over Camp IV while descending from the summit while climbing to the summit without the use of supplemental oxygen.
She is the first Indian female mountaineer to climb four 8,000-meter peaks in less than a month.
The organizers said efforts were underway to return their bodies to the base camp.
– Jans
ag/ksk/
