Cheruiyot Kirui, a Kenyan mountain climber, has been found dead just hours after being declared missing after he attempted to climb Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen.
Everest Today shared a post on X, announcing Kirui’s death.
”With profound sadness, we share the news of Kenyan mountaineer Cheruiyot Kirui’s passing on Mt Everest. His body was found a few meters below the summit point of Mt Everest. ”
With profound sadness, we share the news of Kenyan mountaineer Cheruiyot Kirui’s passing on Mt #Everest. His body was found a few meters below the summit point of Mt Everest. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/HwoEAM0tEQ
— Everest Today (@EverestToday) May 23, 2024
Kirui was a banker who worked for Kenya Commercial Bank before developing a passion for rock climbing in his 30s.
In an interview with the star, he said he developed the passion during a work boot camp at the Outward Bound Training Centre in Kajiado County.
The Outward Bound is at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro, a major tourist attraction in Tanzania.
”We had gone to stay beneath Mt Kilimanjaro and surprisingly that day, it looked very beautiful,” he said with a smile.
He added that the orange horizon invited him to climb the mountain and that is how he began his mountain climbing journey.
Cheruiyot had reportedly tried to climb the mountain without oxygen supplements before losing contact with the rest of the climbers at the Bishop Rock Zone.
He was trying to test the limitations of the human body by trying to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain above sea level, Mount Everest.
Cheruiyot was accompanied by Mr Nawang Sherpa whose fate is still unknown now according to base camp officials.
Mount Everest which is located at the border of China and Nepal stands at 8,849 metres tall.
Cheruiyot is not the first climber to succumb at the slopes of the mountain as a Romanian climber, Gabriel Tavara was found lifeless in his tent at camp III on Tuesday.
Just like his counterparts, Gabriel was also attempting to climb the mountain without using the supplementary oxygen.
Chairman of Seven Summit Treks, Mingma Sherpa, said that Cheruiyot went missing after exhibiting abnormal behaviors and remaining out of contact from Bishop Rock, which is a few metres below the summit point.
” Kirui, a banker working with KCB, and his Sherpa guide, Nawang, were last contacted at the Bishop Rock,” the chairman said.
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