KATHMANDU: An Ame­r­ican climber died on Sun­day on his way to the summit of Mount Everest, expedition organisers said, the latest death to mar the ongoing climbing season.

The 50-year-old mountaineer died close to the Balcony, a small platform above the 8,000-metre mark considered the mountain’s “death zone”.

“An American climber has died around the Balcony area. We are trying to get mo­re details,” Murari Kris­hna Sharma of Everest Pari­var Expedition, a private mou­n­taineering company, said.

The death zone is notorious for its difficult terrain and thin air, where low levels of oxygen heighten the risk of altitude sickness.

A search is also underway for an Indian climber who lost contact after reaching the summit of the world’s tallest mountain on Saturday.

His Nepali guide was found unconscious at Camp 4, just below 8,000 metres, with severe frostbite.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017