On Tuesday, a Greek climber died on Nepal’s Mount Dhaulagiri, organizers say. This tragedy is the first fatality of this year’s busy Himalayan spring climbing season.
Antonio Sykari posted a message on Instagram announcing that he had made it to the top of the world’s seventh-highest peak. Sykaris wrote that he was dedicating his feat to “my little Iris, my granddaughter.”
“Iris I am at the top!!!” he wrote.
While descending, the 59-year-old had fallen ill, mountain guide Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks told AFP.
“He died at an altitude of 7,400 meters. We are speaking with his family,” Sherpa said,
On Tuesday, a message on his official Instagram account said that he died “after a huge physical and mental effort and lack of additional oxygen.
According to Sykaris’s website, he was an experienced climber who had submitted five other mountains higher than 8,000 meters, including the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.
In 1960, Dhaulagiri’s 8,170-metre (26,800-foot) peak was first scaled by a Swiss-Austrian team and has since been climbed by hundreds of people.
Spring climbing season begins each April when temperatures are warm and winds are usually calm.
It often attracts hundreds of adventurers each year to Nepal, home to eight of the world’s highest peaks.
Last year, the country only reopened its peaks to mountaineers after the pandemic shut down the industry in 2020.
However, with coronavirus cases receding, expedition operators in Nepal are hopeful of a busier climbing season this year.
Nepal’s government has already processed 530 permits for mountaineers this season, including 2041 for Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.
