Everest hero falls to his death on world’s highest mountain

Babu Chhiri, a renowned Sherpa guide listed in the Guinness Book of Records for having climbed Mount Everest in 17 hours, died when he fell into crevasse of the world’s highest peak.

The 35-year-old Sherpa was guiding a team of mountaineers on Everest yesterday when he slipped and fell 100 feet into a crevasse at Camp Two, situated at 20,400 feet.

"Babu Chhiri had left the camp alone to take photographs but people only noticed he was missing during dinner time three hours later," said Babu Sherpa, Chhiri’s friend and business partner.

Team-mates searched the snowy slopes, following his footprints. His body was found around midnight.

"It was only a short fall, if there had been somebody around at the time to help him out he would have definitely survived," said Babu Sherpa.

Last year, Chhiri scampered up the 29,035 ft summit from the 17,160 ft base camp in just 16 hours and 56 minutes. He shattered the previous record set by fellow Sherpa, Kaji, in 1998, who climbed the mountain in 20 hours and 24 minutes.

Most climbers take two to four days to cover the distance from the base camp to the summit.

On May 6 1999, Chhiri had also became the first man to remain on the summit without bottled oxygen for 21 hours. Most foreign climbers remain at the peak just long enough to have their photo taken.

Chhiri is survived by his wife and six daughters. Before making mountaineering his career, he was a yak herder and potato farmer like most Sherpas.

In an interview last July, Chhiri said that with the money he was collecting through his record climbs, he hoped to build a school in his village of Taksindo.

"I never got the chance to go to school," he said. "I want all my girls, all the children, to get the education that I never had."

Sherpas, who live at the foot of the Himalayas, are renowned for their mountaineering skills. They were mostly yak herders and traders until Nepal opened its borders to tourism in 1950. Their stamina and knowledge of the mountains make them expert guides and porters.

Chhiri got his first taste of mountaineering when he was 13 and worked as a base camp porter for the experienced Sherpas who guide foreigners all the way up the forbidding summit.

In 1989, he successfully led a Russian team up Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest peak. A year later, he conquered Mount Everest and had since reached the summit 10 times. In 1995, he became the only man to reach the peak twice in 14 days.

"The view is beautiful from the top of the world," he once said. "Everest is like a friend, Everest is God."