Indian man, 45, dies on Mount Everest: 'He refused to descend'

Two climbers - one Indian and one Filipino - have died on the world’s highest mountain peak, Mount Everest, marking the first deaths of the current March–May climbing season, Reuters reported. Subrata Ghosh, 45, from India, died on Thursday below the Hillary Step while descending after reaching the 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak.

“He refused to descend from below the Hillary Step,” Bodhraj Bhandari of Nepal’s Snowy Horizon Treks and Expedition organising company was quoted as saying by Reuters.
 

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Subrata Ghosh, a 45-year-old mountaineer from West Bengal, lost his life near the Hillary Step, a dangerous stretch close to the 8,848.86-metre (29,032-foot) summit of Mount Everest. As reported by The Himalayan Times, Ghosh was a member of the Mountaineering Association of Krishnanagar’s Snowy Everest Expedition 2025 and had successfully reached the summit late Saturday afternoon. 

“Ghosh reached the summit around 2 p.m. but began to show signs of exhaustion and altitude sickness during the descent,” said Bodhraj Bhandari, Managing Director at Snowy Horizon Treks, the company organizing the expedition. “He eventually refused to continue moving down.”

The Hillary Step is situated in the ‘death zone,’ the region between the South Col at 8,000 metres (26,250 feet) and the summit, where the natural oxygen levels are too low to sustain human life.

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"Efforts are underway to bring his body down to the base camp. The cause of his death will be known only after the post-mortem," Bhandari said.

Philipp II Santiago, 45, from the Philippines, died late on Wednesday at the South Col while ascending, according to Himal Gautam, a tourism department official.

Santiago was tired when he reached the fourth high camp and died while resting in his tent, Gautam added.

Santiago and Ghose were both members of an international expedition organised by Bhandari.

Nepal has issued 459 permits to climb Everest during the current season that ends in May. Nearly 100 climbers and their guides have already reached the summit this week.

At least 345 people have died on Everest in more than 100 years since summiting expeditions were known to have started, according to the Himalayan Database and hiking officials.

(With inputs from Reuters)