Top climber falls to death after rare Himalayan feat

A leading Slovak mountain climber has died while descending a 7,234m (23,730ft) peak in Nepal, after completing the rare feat of scaling the mountain’s perilous eastern face.

Ondrej Huserka fell into a crevasse on Thursday, after he and his climbing partner ascended the Langtang Lirung mountain in the Himalayas – the 99th-highest peak in the world.

The 34-year-old mountaineer had previously climbed in the Alps, Patagonia and the Pamir Mountains.

His Czech climbing partner Marek Holecek said the pair were returning to base after becoming the first mountaineers to ascend Langtang Lirung via a “terrifying” eastern route.

While rappelling a mountain wall, Mr Huserka’s rope snapped and he fell into an ice crevasse, his partner said in an emotional Facebook update posted after he returned alone.

He then “hit an angled surface after an 8m drop, then continued down a labyrinth into the depths of the glacier”.

In the Facebook post, Mr Holecek recalled hearing his partner’s cries for help and desperately trying to save him.

“I rappelled down to him and stayed with him for four hours until his light faded,” Mr Holecek said.

After freeing him from the ice, Mr Holecek realised his partner was paralysed.

“His star was fading as he lay in my arms,” he said.

The Slovak climbers’ association, SHS James, said adverse weather in Nepal had prevented rescue action.

“Following a phone call with Marek Holecek and his status published yesterday, and given the weather conditions under Langtang Lirung, the family and friends will have to cope with the fact that Ondrej is not with us any more,” it said in a social media post.

The Langtang Lirung mountain sits alongside other peaks in the Nepalese Himalayas and is a popular trekking destination.

Judith Swift, a climber who visited Langtang in the spring of this this year, said it was described to her by a local Nepalese Sherpa as “the killer mountain”.

“Not many people have summited it and many, including now sadly Ondrej Huserka, have died climbing it,” she told the BBC.

Mr Huserka joined the Slovak national alpinism team in 2011 and won the SHS James best ascent of the year award six times, according to his personal website.

His decade-long mountaineering career took him around the world.

He completed the first ascent of the “Summer Bouquet” on Alexander Block Peak in Kyrgyzstan, and repeated a “legendary route” on the Cerro Torre’s south-east ridge in South America, his website says.

Paying tribute to the late climber, SHS James said Mr Huserka was a “top alpinist” and “world-class”.

The Slovak Spectator said he was “one of the best Slovak mountaineers”.