KATHMANDU: A Dutch mountaineer and an unamed Australian woman climber died after assaulting the Everest summit in the past few days. The Dutch mountaineer, Eric Arnold (35), suffered altitude sickness and died at Camp 4 on Friday while the Australian woman climber (mid-30s), not identified, also died of same cause on way down from Camp 4 to 3 on Saturday after her successful mission.

Arnold's Twitter account (6:44 AM May 20) soon after the assault had said he summitted the 8,850-metre-high peak on his fifth attempt. Last year he was defeated in his attempt being caught in the earthquate. The Dutch news agency ANP reported that Arnold had told his teammates "my body has no energy left" adding he may have died in sleep.

The major complication in an Everest trek is the likelihood of deadly Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Also known as altitude sickness, AMS is usually caused by climbing too quickly to a high elevation and wanting in natural oxygen. One's physical vulnerabilty is detected even at the Everest base camp. So the general advice is change your destination to other peaks like Namche or Khumjung or Tengpoche. From Tengpoche you can have an excellent view of the Everest. Notably, a patient of MS was among the recent successful climbers.

About 330 climbers have successfully scaled Mount Everest this season.

Meanwhile, three climbers from Bengal are reported missing on the Everest since Friday night. On Thursday, another climber from Bengal was killed after climbing Dhaulagiri peak.