Woman rescued on Mount Everest

A woman who became seriously ill in Mount Everest’s “death zone” safely reached base camp, mountaineering officials in Nepal said.

Uma Bista of Nepal was “barely coherent” and suffering from cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain, when she was found on Monday at about 8,300 metres (28,000 feet), below the summit, said veteran US climber Dave Hahn.

Hahn said he and other climbers in his group were descending from the summit when they came across Bista.

He and the others managed to carry Bista to a lower camp and handed her over to a British team, which was on the mountain on a medical research mission.

“Seems like she’s going to recover, and that’s pretty impressive. We didn’t think she’d make it,” Hahn said in his message posted on greatoutdoors.com.

Krishna Bhandari of the Nepalese Mountaineering Department said yesterday Bista was “at the base camp and safe. We are trying to arrange a helicopter to bring her back to Kathmandu”.

Last year, a British climber David Sharp died after dozens of climbers passed him on the well travelled route to the summit through the northern side of the mountain in China.

Sharp’s death sparked debate and questioned ethics of climbers on Everest. Some climbers have given up their chance to step on the top of the world to save fellow mountaineers desperate for help, but there are many who have simply continued their journey without stopping to offer aid.

The final and most difficult part of Everest – the area above 7,900 metres (26,000 feet) – is nicknamed the “death zone.”

Rescues at such altitude are difficult because of the thin air, high winds, icy slopes and exhaustion.

Climbers afflicted with high altitude cerebral edema – a sudden, potentially fatal swelling of the brain – display confusion, hallucinations and semiconsciousness and need to descend immediately and receive oxygen and medication.