Kolkata: A 45-year-old climber from Bengal’s Ranaghat Subrata Ghosh died while descending from Mt Everest after successfully reaching its summit. This was the second reported death on the world’s highest mountain this season.
Ghosh, who worked as a government school teacher in North 24-Parganas’ Bagdah, had successfully reached the summit around 2 pm on May 15 as part of the Krishnanagar-Snowy Everest Expedition 2025, but encountered severe exhaustion and showed symptoms of altitude sickness on the way down. His expedition guide, Champal Tamang was quoted saying that Ghosh eventually became immobile and refused to proceed. The incident occurred just below the Hillary Step, a critical point near the mountain’s summit. Tamang managed to return to Camp IV later that night and reported the situation to the team on the morning of May 16. Efforts are currently underway to retrieve Ghosh’s body and bring it down to base camp. Bodhraj Bhandari, Managing Director at Snowy
Horizon Treks, said that Ghosh died just below the Hillary Step, near the summit point of Mt Everest on Saturday, according to the paper. Ghosh was late in making his summit push and reached the top with his guide around 2 pm, the paper said. During the descent, he became exhausted and showed signs of altitude sickness, eventually refusing to continue, he said.
Ghosh began his journey on March 31. The family members were informed about the incident around 7 am by Snowy Horizon Trek and Expedition, the agency that organised Ghosh’s climb. The family members also urged the authorities to carry out the rescue operation without delay. A day earlier, on May 14, a 45-year-old Philipp II Santiago from the Philippines died at Camp IV while preparing for his summit attempt.
In another development, a 54-year-old Soumen Sarkar, an assistant engineer of state PWD department and a resident successfully scaled Mt Everest. Sarkar has been climbing mountains for the past 20 years. He has already scaled several mountains.