Mount Everest claimed its third life in two weeks after a young Sherpa guide tumbled into an icy chasm on the world’s tallest peak. Phura Gyaljen Sherpa, 21, lost his footing in the snow and plummeted into an ice fracture near Camp III, at 23,620 feet, Nisha Thapa Rawat, an official with Nepal’s tourism department, told Reuters on Tuesday. His death means five people have died across Nepal’s Himalayan range since the beginning of April—yet officials say business is booming, with $15,000-a-pop Everest permits hitting 492 this spring, easily topping 2023’s total of 478. Earlier this month, Bijay Ghimire Bishwakarma, 35, was killed acclimatizing in the treacherous Khumbu icefall, while veteran climber Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, 52, died en route to base camp. The wider Himalayan toll has spread beyond Everest, too. American Johannesen Shelley, 53, perished last week on Makalu—at 27,765 feet, the planet’s fifth-highest summit—and Czech mountaineer David Ronbinek was killed on its smaller sister, Makalu II. It comes after a giant ice slab last month blocked the route to Everest’s 29,032-foot summit for almost two weeks, marooning hundreds of climbers at the mountain’s base.
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