American climber among three dead on Mount Everest

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Three Mount Everest climbers died as storms and high winds closed fleeting windows of good weather that opened a chance for teams to push toward the top of the world’s tallest peak, authorities said Sunday.

Roland Yearwood, a doctor from Alabama who returned to Everest after surviving the earthquaketriggered avalanche in 2015, died not far from the summit on the Nepal side early Sunday, according to Nepal tourism officials and his trekking company.

Yearwood, 50, was a physician at Georgiana Medical Center in Butler County in south Alabama.

Slovak mountaineer Vladimir Strba also died Sunday, and search operations continued for an Indian climber who was separated from his guide Saturday. And on the Tibet side of the mountain, a 54-year-old Australian climber, Francesco Enrico Marchetti, died after suffering altitude sickness, according to a report in the Himalayan Times.

This year, a record number of climbers are trying to scale the world’s highest peak, with 375 foreigners now permitted, the most since 1953. The high traffic volume has fueled concerns there may be safety issues on the mountain that continues to suffer environmental degradation.

Mountaineers ascending to the top confirmed this season that little remains of the famed “Hillary Step” — the wall of rock that was once the final test of endurance before the summit and named for mountaineer Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the Everest summit in 1953 with fellow climber Tenzing Norgay.

An estimated 60 climbers made the summit in Nepal on Sunday alone, authorities said.

“The weather has been pretty bad, especially with high winds, but there were some little keyholes which climbers have been lucky to take advantage of,” said Tendi Sherpa, a longtime guide, said in a Facebook direct message from base camp. “Several teams got lucky but there are also many climbers who had to turn around half way to the summit due to high winds.”

Sherpa said that Sunday was a busy day for helicopter evacuations, mostly altitude-related sicknesses, frostbite and snow blindness.

He said several teams were planning on climbing all night and expect to reach the summit Monday morning.