Chris Kulish, 62, died on Monday after reaching the summit. He died ‘suddenly’ after arriving back at South Col
An American lawyer has become the 11th person to die descending Everest in the last 10 days.
Colorado-resident Christopher John Kulish, 62, died on Monday after scaling the mountain from the normal Southeast Ridge route.
He died suddenly after at South Col after his descent and the cause of his death remains unclear.
It was announced by the Nepal tourism department on Monday.
Kulish is the second American to die in the last 10 days after reaching the peak.
He was part of a group of climbers who celebrated his 62nd birthday on the mountain.
Most of the deaths have been attributed to exhaustion and tiredness, exacerbated because a crowded route to and from the summit has led to dangerous delays.
Seasoned Sherpa have told how there are now more inexperienced climbers than ever scaling the peak.
Some do not even know how to put on their shoes but they are fighting and shoving for selfies as they get to the summit.
It means that everyone waiting to scale the final stretch of the mountain is spending more time than they should with limited oxygen supplies at the very top.
Kulish was a patent lawyer from Boulder, Colorado.
Massive line: In this picture taken on Sunday May 22, hundreds of mountain climbers line up to stand at the summit of Mount Everest Many teams waited for hours to reach the summit, risking frostbites and altitude sickness
The route up the mountain includes several large obstacles and a huge moving glacier near to base camp as shown in the map above
Kulish had reached the summit and started his descent when he died on Monday. No other information has yet emerged
News of his death on Monday came hours after a Canadian film maker described stepping over a dead body to get to the peak.
Elia Saikaly, from Ottawa, said he tried to warn other climbers to head off the world’s tallest peak, people who later ended up dead.
The filmmaker said: ‘Here we all were, chasing a dream and beneath our very feet there was a lifeless soul.
It was scary… it was like a zoo
‘Is this what Everest has become?
‘As I documented the team climbing the iconic step, my mind raced and empathized with every person who struggled to stay alive while undoubtedly questioning their own humanity, ethics and integrity.
‘This poor human being perched 7000ft above the Western CWM for everyone to observe was a reminder of each of our own mortality. Was this the ‘Dream of Everest’ we all imagined?
‘My heart bled for the family and loved ones and at the same time I was conscious of the necessity to continue to move. At nearly 9000m above sea level, there is no choice but to carry on.
‘Who is responsible here? The individuals? The companies? The Government? Is it time to enforce new rules? Will things ever change? What’s the solution here?
‘With great sadness, as the cues pushed onwards and upwards, so did we, as did over 200 people that day.
Sakaily posted this picture he took while he was on the treacherous mountain on Thursday – a dead body can be seen still tethered dangling from the mountain. Sakaily wrote: ‘This poor human being perched 7000ft above the Western CWM for everyone to observe was a reminder of each of our own mortality’
‘I deeply apologize for the sensitivity of this post, but I feel we have a responsibility to inform aspiring future climbers of the seriousness of this undertaking while creating a dialogue around how to make safer, more responsible and more ethical choices with how we approach climbing to the top of the world.
‘To those that lost their lives this season may their souls Rest In Peace.’
Questions have now turned to who is to blame for the dangerous set of circumstances.
Some say the Nepalese government is selling too many of the $11,000 permits required to climb the mountain because it needs the money.
Of the 18 days this year on the mountain, only two have occurred on the Tibetan side – which is stricter with how many permits it issues.
One climber who scaled the summit this week described the scene as ‘scary’.
Ed Dohring, a doctor from Arizona who dreamed his whole life of climbing it, told The New York Times that when he finally got to the summit this week, he had to stand ‘chest-to-chest’ with around 20 other people.
‘It was scary. It was like a zoo,’ he said.
Irishmen Seamus Lawless 39, , (left) and Kevin Hynes, 56, (right) also died descending the peak
Utah-resident Donald Lynn Cash, 55, (left) collapsed after reaching the summit of Everest. British climber Robn Haynes Fisher (right), also died last week
Guides who were operating on the Nepalese side of the mountain are now switching to the Tibetan side because they fear more will die.
‘This is not going to improve. There’s a lot of corruption in the Nepali government.
‘They take whatever they can get,’ Lukas Furtenbach, one such guide, said.
Nepal’s government has denied that it is to blame and says instead that there have not been enough good-weather days this year .
‘If you really want to limit the number of climbers, let’s just end all expeditions on our holy mountain,’ Danduraj Ghimire, the director general of Nepal’s department of tourism said.
Others have told how ruthless and ‘obsessed’ climbers become with getting to the top that they ignore people who may be struggling.
‘I asked people for water and no one gave me any. People are really obsessed with the summit. They are ready to kill themselves for the summit,’ 18-year-old Rizza Alee from Kashmir said.
Another woman said that as she climbed to the top, she saw people around her collapsing but no one stopped to offer them oxygen for fear that they would die themselves.
‘It was terrible,’ she said.