Record-Breaking Sherpa Killed On Everest

Updated Nepalnews.com is now reporting that Chiri's body has now been helicoptered to Kathmandu this morning - Tuesday - for final rites.

Babu Chiri, the Sherpa who set an astonishing speed record on Everest last year has reportedly died after falling into a crevasse close to Camp 2 on the mountain.

Nepalnews.com is reporting that the accident happened on Sunday night when Chiri set off alone to take photos near the camp. He apparently disappeared at about 4pm and his body was discovered at midnight reportedly after falling 200 metres into a crevasse at an altitude of 6200 metres..

His body is said to have been recovered this morning and it is expected that it will be carried down to basecamp.

Chiri set the 16 hour, 56 minute ascent record last year and has also spent 21 hours camped on the summit of the world's highest mountain in a specially designed Mountain Hardwear tent which incorporated a tie-in hole in the ground sheet to enable the Sherpa to clip in to an ice screw. See this article on the MHW site.

He was part of a new breed of Sherpas who had realised the financial rewards of climbing celebrity far outweighed those that were possible through traditional expedition work and through his sponsorship by Mountain Hardwear and use of his own celebrity to promote his guiding company had become very well off by Nepali standards.

In a recent profile in American magazine Outside, Mountain Hardwear employees described how he happily worked in their warehouse dispatching orders and spoke of how popular he was with everyone at the company.