By Alan Arnette4 min read

Everest 2025: More Everest Summits and A Death Reported

Thursday, May 15, 2025, was a blustry day for Himalayan summits, with low winds. However, some teams will wait a few more days, after May 20th, for a longer window of stable weather, while others will thread the weather needle and try on the 18/19.

 While there were summits, there were also deaths, the first of the season for a member on Everest and also two more Sherpas. Everest has over 90 summits, with at least 35 today. An upper respiratory infection appears to be circulating in EBC, Nepal, with multiple members abandoning their climbs.

Round Up

There were summits on Makalu, Lhotse and Everest today.

Climbing The Seven Summits noted a whopping 30 Everest summits made up of eight members, with twenty-two (!!!) Sherpas. This was a member-to-guide ratio of 1:2.75. They also had three Lhotse summits, with one member accompanied by two Sherpas. Of note, American Emma Schwerin broke the record as the youngest American woman to summit Everest, aged 17 years, 2 months and 24 days and completed the Seven Summits.

Pioneer Adventure claimed five Everest summits, two members with three Sherpas.

Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summits Treks reports that Prakriti Varshney and Phurtenzi Sherpa have successfully reached the summit of Lhotse. 8K Expeditions put eight more (4 Sherpas and 4 members) on the summit of Lhotse a day after summiting Everest, bringing their Everest total to 21.

Seven Summits Treks got what may be the last Makalu summits this season with two members and two Sherpas on top today.  It may also be over on Kanchangua with Altitude Junkies reports of chest-deep snow thwarting today’s summit bids.

Deaths

Filipino Philipp II Santiago, 45, reportedly died of unknown causes at C4 on his Everest ascent with Nepali operator Snowy Horizon. This is their second client death this season, with the other on Ama Dablam.

The Himalayan Times reported that Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism reported that earlier this season, two unnamed Nepalese employees of unidentified expedition operators died in a Kathmandu hospital after being evacuated from EBC by helicopter. This lack of transparency is typical of the Ministry’s approach to tempering bad news that could harm business.

Endless Waves

Multiple teams are preparing or are already staged at high camps on the Nepal side for their summit pushes; They include:

On the Tibetan side:

Other teams on the Tibetan side that will ascend before the end of the month include  Alpenglow, Climbalaya, Kobler & Partner, and a Chinese team of 28. We have no updates on the xenon-powered team that leaves the UK on Friday.

Cover photo of Everest North 2025. Courtesy of Jason Weiss Photography LLC.

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything

Death Total–Ten across the Himalayas

1, 2. April 8–Annapurna: Rinje Sherpa and Ngima Tashi Sherpa, avalanche on Annapurna while working for Seven Summits Treks.

3. April 26–Ama Dablam: Austrian Martin Hornegger, 64, died descending Ama Dablam after summit.

4. May 12–Kanchenjunga: French climber Margareta Morin, 63, died ascending Kanchenjunga, climbing with Peak 15 Adventure.

5. May 5–Makalu: American Alexander (Alex) Pancoe, 39, died at Camp 2, climbing with Madison Mountaineering.

Everest–Five Deaths

1 April 2–Nepali Lanima Sherpa, 55, reportedly died due to high altitude sickness at EBC with an unidentified expedition operator.

2. Early May, Ngima Dorji Sherpa died at EBC from reportedly a brain hemorrhage. He worked for Seven Summits Treks.

3 May 4–Pen Chhiri Sherpa reportedly had a heart attack at Camp I while working for TAG Nepal.

4. May 15–Filipino Philipp II Santiago, 45, reportedly died of unknown causes at C4 on his Everest ascent with Snowy Horizon.

5. May 16, 2025,  West Bengal, Indian, Subrata Ghosh, 45, died near the Hillary Step after summiting with Snowy Horizon.

The Podcast on alanarnette.com

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Previous Everest 2025 Season Coverage Posts

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3 thoughts on “Everest 2025: More Everest Summits and A Death Reported”

  1. The xenon powered UK team posted an update from Heathrow Airport on Friday, with beers in hand. Another interesting approach to preparation! See (at) alcarns on X.

  2. Why is there a reported death of phurba sherpa with an article linked to the year 2023. Is here some error?
    Thanks for you updates, love to read them all season.

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