‘VERY HIGH ALTITUDE’

Grim Update on British Climber and His Guide Who Went Missing on Everest

Hopes of finding Daniel Paul Paterson and his Sherpa guide Pas Tenji Sherpa alive are fading fast.

The search efforts for a British man and his Sherpa guide who went missing on Mount Everest six days ago have stalled, with a Nepali official claiming it was not possible to look for the pair because they fell from “a very high altitude” on the side of the mountain that China controls. Daniel Paul Paterson, 40, and his guide Pas Tenji, 23, were reported missing Tuesday, and according to officials, more “coordination” is needed to form a search party. The pair were caught on their descent from the peak after an ice collapse near the South Summit brought the climbers down. “It is not possible to search for the missing climbers right now because the British (mountaineer) and his Sherpa fell from the bottom of Hillary step which is at about 8,800 meters (26,964 feet) and toward the Kangshung Face in Tibet,” Khim Lal Gautam, an official at Everest’s base camp who monitors climbers, told the Associated Press. The Kangshung Face is ultimately controlled by China. “It is going to be difficult to search for them because they have fallen on the Tibet side which needs coordination,” Gautam said. According to the Associated Press, the climbing season on Everest is expected to last only a few more days.