2 Indian climbers die on way to Mt Kanchenjunga

Two Indian mountaineers have died of altitude-related sickness on the Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak, and rescue workers were preparing on Thursday to mount an effort to rescue two others hit by frostbite and other ailments on the mountain in the Nepal Himalayas.

Two Indian mountaineers have died of altitude-related sickness on the Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak, and rescue workers were preparing on Thursday to mount an effort to rescue two others hit by frostbite and other ailments on the mountain in the Nepal Himalayas.

Biplab Baidya, 48, and Kuntal Karar, 46, died of hypothermia near camp IV at an altitude of about 8,000 metres on Wednesday on the 8,586-feet-high Kanchenjuga. Family and friends of the two others, Rudra Prasad Haldar and Ramesh Roy, were anxiously waiting for their rescue. An attempt will be made on Friday to airlift Haldar, 44, and Roy, 48.

Baidya managed to scale the mountain, but Kuntal fell sick on his way up, and both died during the descent, Mira Acharya, a liaison officer at Nepal’s ministry of tourism team deployed at the base camp, said.

“I am leaving for Kathmandu with Karar’s family members on Friday. However, the priority for the administration at present is to rescue Haldar and Roy from camp II. We are hoping for their safe return,” mountaineer Malay Mukhopadhyay, a close friend of Karar, Roy and Haldar, said on Thursday. Mukhopadhay and Karar are members of the same mountaineering club, the Howrah District Mountaineers and Trekkers Association.