KATHMANDU: Record-holding Indian woman climber Baljeet Kaur died near Camp IV of Mt Annapurna while descending from the summit point, organisers said.
Another Indian climber Anurag Maloo, 34, from Kishangargh of Rajasthan, India, also went missing after he fell down from around 6,000m while descending from Camp III on the same mountain on Monday.
Maloo’s whereabouts are still unknown but a search operation is underway, said the Seven Summit Treks, the organiser of his expedition.
Kaur had posted a photo on Twitter on April 9 where she said she is taking rest at the base camp of the Annapurna.
The Himachal-based mountaineer had many feathers in her hat. The 27-year-old broke the record of the first Indian woman to summit Mount Manaslu without oxygen, the first Indian woman to summit true Mount Manaslu, and the youngest woman to summit Mount Manaslu without oxygen.
She was also the first Indian to climb six 8,000M peaks in the world and the fastest Indian to climb six 8,000M peaks in the world (5 months 2 days).
Pasang Sherpa, chairman at Pioneer Adventure, said that Baljeet died above Camp IV while descending from the top as she scaled the peak without using supplemental oxygen.
She is the first Indian mountaineer to scale four 8,000-meter peaks in less than a month.
Efforts are underway to bring their bodies back to base camp, organisers said.