Everest teams summit Friday; details on climber death

Two expeditions reached the summit of Mount Everest on Friday, one day after a Taiwanese mountaineer died on the shoulders of the world's highest mountain.

On Thursday, Chen Yu-Nan, a 36-year-old Taipei steelworker who was part of a separate climbing team, died on Everest after losing his footing at an elevation of 23,950 feet.

He fell more than 80 feet into a crevasse, sustaining serious injuries that eventually led to his death. According to initial reports received from base camp, Yu-Nan left his tent at Camp III without crampons or safety rope.

His body is expected to be taken to base camp on Saturday.

The remaining four members of his 1996 Chinese Taipei Everest Expedition, led by Gau Ming-Ho, and eight Sherpas are continuing their assault on the mountain, they said.

In the meantime, Friday was marked by the season's first ascents of the 29,028-foot mountain.

The expedition led by Scott Fischer summited at 2:30 p.m. Nepal time (4:30 a.m. Eastern time) Friday with the entire climbing party, including guides Anatoli Boukreev and Neal Beidleman, and climbers Martin Adams, Charlotte Fox, Lene Gammelgaard, Dale Kruse, Tim Madsen, Sandy Pittman, and Klev Schoening. Four Sherpas also reached the summit.

"From Camp III to the summit took 31 hours," said Outside Online's Everest correspondent, Jane Bromet. "They left just after midnight [Thursday] and summited the next afternoon [Friday]," she said. The team stopped at Camp IV along the way for a short rest.

All members of the expedition, with the exception climbing sirdar Lobsang Sherpa, used oxygen during the climb.

Rob Hall, a mountain guide from New Zealand, also summited on Friday. His team included Andrew Harris of New Zealand, Michael Groom of Australia, American Jon Krakauer, and Yasuko Namba.

The climb made Namba the second Japanese woman to reach Everest's summit. The first woman, of any nationality, was Junko Tabei of Japan, who gained the summit in May 1975.

Two Sherpas also accompanied the Hall expedition to the top.

Both expeditions were recovering at Camp IV (26,000 feet) on Friday night, would descend to Camp II (21,350 feet) on Saturday, and hope to be back at base camp (17,700 feet) on Sunday.

The Henry Todd expedition is planning a summit bid Saturday. Ed Viesturs, who is part of an IMAX film project, is planning to make a summit bid Sunday or Monday. Mal Duff, leader of an international expedition, also plans to attempt the summit during that period. And Goran Kropp, the solo climber from Sweden, has been recovering in base camp from an earlier failed attempt and is planning to attempt the summit again Thursday, Bromet said.

This story compiled by Outside Online staff