Humar Dead In Nepal

Sad news from Nepal where top Slovenian mountaineer Tomaz Humar has been confirmed dead after being injured high on 7,2276-metre Langtang Lirung early last week.

Humar's body was found at a lower altitude than the 6,300 metres originally reported by a Swiss rescue team sent in to supplement four sherpas who had been searching the mountain for the missing climber but had been unable to locate him.

The climber who was attempting the technically challenging peak solo, called in last Monday to say that he'd broken his leg and was stranded. A team of sherpas was called in to look for him, but their efforts were reportedly hampered by heavy snow.

A team from Swiss-based rescue service Air Zermatt was called in to effect a helicopter rescue, but the team was too late and the Slovenian was dead before they could reach him, though they did succeed in recovering his body.

Humar, 40, was one of the world's foremost high altitude mountaineers and had made many difficult ascents including a solo of the south face of 8,167-metre Dhaulagiri in November, 1999. He was previously rescued from around 6,000 metres from Nanga Parbat by a Pakistan Army helicopter  while attempting a hard new route on the mountain.

Commenting on his Twitter feed, top British mountaineer Anbdy Kirkpatrick summed up the dangers of extreme high altitude mountaineering: 'It's very sad about Humar, but when someone like that dies no[-one] is really surprised (unless they didn't understand what he was doing).'

More from BBC news: news.bbc.co.uk. AP on Google news: www.google.com. Humar's own site at www.humar.com