Toronto woman among 3 climbers who died on Mount Everest
Posted May 21, 2012 12:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Toronto woman was among three climbers who died during their descent from the summit of Mount Everest over the weekend.
Nepal-born Canadian Shriya Shah-Klorfine died from apparent exhaustion and altitude sickness on Saturday after she and about 150 other climbers made the trip to the summit Friday and Saturday during a brief window of good weather.
Shah-Klorfine ran as a candidate in the Mississauga East-Cooksville riding for the Paramount Canadian Party in the last provincial election. She had planned to donate money raised from her climb to the Hospital for Sick Children.
She outlined her climb plans on the website myeverestexpedition.com.
Citytv sister station OMNI spoke to Shah-Klorfine before she left.
“I’m doing this because I wanted to give a message, follow your dream. You have one life. Live your life,” she said.
The two other climbers who died have been identified as German doctor Eberhard Schaaf and South Korean mountaineer Song Won-bin.
Two people — a Chinese national and his Nepalese Sherpa guide — are also missing.
The climbers aiming for Everest’s summit over the weekend had apparently been waiting at a staging camp for several days for the right time to head to the top of the famed 8,850-metre high mountain.
A Nepalese mountaineering official described the scene as a “traffic jam”. The area above the final staging camp is called the “death zone” due to icy and steep conditions and the low oxygen levels.
Changing conditions on the mountain have prompted warnings from climbers and environmentalists, who believe climate change is causing conditions to worsen each year. Lower-than-normal snowfall this year has apparently also made climbing conditions even more dangerous.
Eight people were killed on Mount Everest on May 10, 1995 when the climbers got caught in a snowstorm.
With files from The Canadian Press
