5 missing Russian climbers found dead on world’s 7th-highest peak, official says

Five missing Russian mountaineers have been located dead on Tuesday after appearing to have fallen while climbing Mount Dhaulagiri in Nepal, the world’s seventh-highest peak, according to an expedition organizer.

Pemba Jangbu Sherpa, a senior official with the Kathmandu-based “I AM Trekking and Expeditions,” told Reuters that the five men appeared to have “slipped on the slope” of the 26,788-foot mountain.

Mount Dhaulagiri at sunrise on Aug. 23, 2019. (Daniele Frediani/Archivio Daniele Frediani/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

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“They might have been tied to the same rope,” he speculated to the outlet. “One of them could have slipped on the slope and all five fell together.”

The group of climbers were reported missing on Sunday.

Pemba, who works for the company that provided support to the team of missing climbers, told The Associated Press that a helicopter spotted the bodies on Tuesday at an altitude of around 24,934 feet.

The Dhaulagiri Range, on the left and the Annapurna Range, on the right of the central Himalayas is seen as trekkers view the sweeping sunrise from Poon Hill, above the village of Ghorepani, in central Nepal on Oct. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Malcolm Foster, File)

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Two of the climbers had reportedly reached the summit, while the remaining had returned without reaching the top. Radio contact was lost between the expedition company and the team members at the base camp.

Pemba told Reuters separately that a sixth member of the team was evacuated to hospital in Kathmandu. The climber was said to be exhausted and unable to walk.