Rescue helicopter plucks Maria Strydom's body from Everest

By Gopal SharmaKATHMANDU (Reuters) - A rescue helicopter brought the body of Australian climber Maria Strydom from Mount Everest to the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Friday, a week after she died on the world's tallest mountain.Strydom, 34, was nearing the 8,850-metre (29,035 foot) summit when she fell ill with altitude sickness and had to turn back. She died last Saturday."Her body has now been brought to Kathmandu from the mountain," said Phu Tenzi Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks that organized her expedition.Strydom's husband, Robert Gropel, who was in her team and also suffered altitude sickness, was airlifted to Kathmandu early this week.Arnold Coster, who led the expedition, said Seven Summit Treks was as prepared as any. The Dutch mountaineer said he had personally selected climbers, and Strydom and Gropel had three experienced sherpas between them.Gropel said the pair began their summit bid on Friday night in clear weather, departing from Camp 4, but at the South Summit at nearly 8,000 meters, Strydom slowed, stricken by altitude sickness.Gropel also began to suffer from a lack of oxygen, hampering his thought processes."It took a while for me to register that I had medication, and so as soon as I realized I gave her a dexamethasone injection," Gropel told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.With the medication and more oxygen brought up by sherpas, Strydom improved and was making her way down. She then suddenly collapsed and could not be revived.Coster responded to criticisms the group did not sleep at Camp 3, saying that can also weaken climbers.Sherpa climbers brought Strydom's body down the mountain to Camp 2 (6,400 meters) on Wednesday, from where a rescue helicopter plucked it to Kathmandu on Friday.On Thursday, rescuers brought down the body of 36-year-old Dutchman Eric Ary Arnold, who also died while on descent from the summit last week.Officials said sherpa climbers were searching in the vicinity of the Balcony, on the approaches to the summit of Everest, for two other Indian climbers who went missing last weekend and are feared dead.About 400 climbers have reached the top of Everest this month, the first time they were on the mountain after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake set off an avalanche that killed at least 18 people at Base Camp a year ago.Everest has been climbed by over 7,300 people since 1953 when Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary made their pioneering ascent. The deaths this month take the toll to at least 282.(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Additional reporting by Jane Wardell in SYDNEY; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Ryan Woo)Join the conversation about this story
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