Climber dies in 1,500m horror free-fall from Himalayan mountain - The Independent

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A ​missing climber has been found dead after a drastic fall while descending from the summit of a Himalayan peak in north-east Nepal.

Wolfgang Waschiczek, a 57-year-old German man, had topped the 6,814 metre (22,256 ft) Ama Dablam peak on Sunday, but fell more than 1,500 metres (4,920 ⁠feet) on his way ​back ⁠down from the summit.

His body was recovered by search and rescue officials on Monday, Gokul Thapa, head of ⁠the Real Himalaya Pvt Ltd company, ​which ⁠provided local logistics to ‌him, said.

"His body was recovered by a search team today itself," Thapa told Reuters ‌from Lukla, gateway to ‌the mountainous region.

He added that the German had last been seen alive at Camp III on the mountain, and his body was spotted at 4,500m - a fall of about 1,700 metres.

Mr Waschiczek had shared the Ama Dablam expedition permit with Snowy Horizon, a trekking company. Its managing director Bodhraj Bhandari said the climber had lost contact with his guide at around 8am on October 26 while they prepared to descend the slope.

He and guide Sonam Lama had scaled the peak on Sunday and headed back down to Camp III that same evening.

“The pair decided to stay at Camp III overnight after borrowing a sleeping bag and other gear from other climbers,” said Mr Bhandari.

The next morning, Mr Lama had asked the climber to wait with his safety gear while he returned the sleeping bag to its owner.

When he got back to their meeting point, Mr Waschiczek was nowhere to be seen.

“When Lama returned within less than five minutes, Wolfgang was not at the spot where he had been asked to wait with his safety gear,” added Mr Bhandari.

A helicopter and rescue team were alerted, and quickly began to search for the German, who was not wearing crampons on the snowy slope.

Sadly, his body was found nearly 2km below the camp.

It is the first casualty on Ama Dablam this season, a popular mountain among climbers in Solukhumbu district, home to the world's ⁠tallest peak, Mount Everest.

More than ‌300 mountaineers have ⁠received permits to climb Ama Dablam during ⁠the current September-November autumn climbing season.

Mr Thapa said the body of the German climber had been picked up from the mountain and would be carried by a ‌helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu for ​a post mortem examination.

It comes just days after two Japanese climbers died on another peak in west Nepal after going missing.

A slab avalanche is believed to have swept them to their deaths, after heavy snowfall in the region.

Earlier this year, ‌10 climbers ​including a noted Nepali-British climber ‌died on a ​mountain in Pakistan.