4 Climbers Killed on Everest Including 1 American

It was a tragic weekend on the world’s highest peak as four climbers were killed on Mt. Everest including an American doctor from Alabama, according to the Associate Press.

Roland Yearwood, 50, died from altitude sickness while making an attempt at the summit, something that he’d been working toward for several years. The body of an Indian climber was found on Everest and climbers from Slovakia and Australia also perished, according to reports. There has been a total of six deaths on Everest thus far as the spring season wraps up at the end of this month.

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A post shared by Mount Everest (@mounteverestofficial) on May 22, 2017 at 3:39am PDT

Ravi Kumar, the native of India, apparently fell some 200 meters on his way down from the summit. There are reports that he was ill but his death shows once again that both the ascent and descent can prove lethal.

In addition to the deaths, there have been rumors that the Hillary Step, the final challenge to climbers trying to reach the summit (named for Sir Edmund Hillary) has collapsed. One climber substantiated those reports while officials in Nepal have denied that the stepping stones to the summit have been destroyed.