Mount Everest attracts some of the world’s greatest, most skilled adventurers—but as Jon Krakauer famously described in Into Thin Air, the possibility of sudden death lurks at every step up its slopes.
That was proved true three weeks ago when world-renowned Swedish climber Ueli Steck was killed near Everest. And now, as Reuters reports, four more climbers have been found dead in their tents, raising the death toll to 10 for the month.
The climbers bodies were found at Camp Four in two tents at more than 26,000 feet above sea level. The cause of death is not known but suspected of being carbon monoxide poisoning from using camp stoves inside their tents without proper ventilation.
The names of the four climbers were not available at press time.
Ironically, the sherpas who discovered the four bodies were on a recovery mission themselves, retrieving the body of Slovakian climber Vladimir Strba, who died near the 29,035-foot summit over the weekend.
Per Reuters, 5,000-plus climbers have scaled Mount Everest since it was first accomplished by Sir Edmund Hillary and his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, in 1953, and nearly 300 have died during attempts.
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