Kenyan found dead after going missing on Everest

NEPAL: A Kenyan mountaineer who went missing near the summit of Mount Everest has been found dead.

Forty-year-old Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui and his Nepali guide Nawang Sherpa, 44, disappeared on Wednesday while attempting to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen.

The guide is yet to be found by the search team that had been deployed to locate the pair, a local tourism official told AFP news agency.

Climbing Everest, the world’s highest peak, is considered extremely difficult and risky, even for experienced climbers.

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Nepalese newspaper the Himalayan Times quoted Mr Sherpa informing the base camp that Mr Kirui had showed “abnormal behaviour” and “refused to return and even consume bottled oxygen”.

Contact with the duo was lost shortly after the message, base camp officials told the paper.

Last week, Mr Kirui told BBC that he had undergone extensive physical preparations ahead of the challenge, with his descent planned for Wednesday.