Compiled by Outside Online

May 1, 2002 A British mountaineer fell over 600 feet to his death on Tuesday on the world's tallest peak, 29,035-foot Mount Everest. According to London's The Times, Peter Legate, 38, fell into a crevasse on the Lhotse Face at about 22,000 feet after losing his footing while trying to fix ropes between Camp Two and Camp Three.

Legate was a part of a seven-member international squad that included Hungarians and Americans. Team members watched helplessly as Legate fell, according to the UK-based Daily Telegraph.

Before leaving for Everest, Legate, who had summited Mount McKinley in Alaska and Ama Dablam in the Himalayas, told the Daily Telegraph that his odds of reaching the top of the world were not great. "There's a very good chance that I won't get to the top. Much better climbers than me have been on Everest and not got to the top but I'm happy to give it my best shot, " he was quoted as saying.

"We all knew the dangers of what he was doing but also knew it was something he desperately wanted to do," Legate's mother, Margaret, 76, told the Daily Telegraph.

Legate is the second climber to die in the Himalayas over the past five days. Raymond David Caughron, 58, of Berkeley, California, was found dead by two members of a Swiss expedition last Friday on Nepal's 27, 824-foot Mount Makalu, according to the Associated Press. Caughron had been climbing with the 12-member International Makalu Expedition Team led by Polish mountaineer Piotr Pustelrik. Bad weather and heavy snowfall reportedly forced Caughron to camp at high elevation. His body was discovered at 23,735 feet.

""The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation expresses its deep sorrow on the sad demise of both the members of the Everest and International Makalu expedition teams," read a statement released by the Nepali government.