Subhash Paul's death at Mount Everest is the latest in a series of tragedies

Subhash Paul from West Bengal died on Monday while trying to scale Mount Everest. This was not the first case when a climber died since Everest opened up this year for climbing. Three foreigners died before Paul in the last week. Paul reached the 8,848 metre summit on Saturday but collapsed while descending the Hillary Step ice wall and died the following day, reported NDTV. He was part of a four-member Indian climbers team, of which one has been rescued and two are still missing. [caption id=“attachment_2792002” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Mount Everest. Getty Images[/caption] Sunita Hazra, part of Paul’s team, was rescued and brought to a hospital in Kathmandu, while Paresh Nath and Goutam Ghosh are still missing. The West Bengal government on Monday said that they will send a team of officials to Nepal for coordinating the rescue operations of the two missing climbers. It further added that the Paul’s body will be brought to the state. Maria Strydom, an Australian, suffered from altitude sickness after reaching camp IV, the final one before reaching the summit. She died because of a lack of oxygen in Nepal on Saturday afternoon. DailyMail reported that she challenged herself to climb the Everest to show that “vegans can do anything.” Eric Arnold of the Netherlands died on Friday while coming back after scaling the Mount Everest. He had complained of weakness and possibly died in his sleep. This, however, was not his first attempt. He survived the avalanche the previous year and the year before that. In 2012, he was forced to return because of bad weather. Phurba Sherpa fell to his death on 19 May while fixing a route about 150 metres near the summit, reported CNN-News18. After a long break because of the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the avalanche in 2014, the ascent to Everest was resumed. While there have been several tragedies at Mount Everest as well, there have been stories of inspiration as well. For instance, Dutch climber Niels van Buren scaled the peak on 20 May to become the first person suffering from multiple sclerosis to reach the top after two months, reported ABC News. He hoped to increase awareness for the disease and raise money for research into the disease. Climbing the Everest is not a “logical choice” rather, it is a “passion” to refine yourself into a better version of you, CNN-News18 quoted veteran mountaineer Jim Davidson. This is one of the reasons which compel people to undertake this difficult journey despite the harsh conditions and threat to life.