ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – A search and rescue operation involving several teams is under way for a missing Singaporean climber who had reached Mount Everest’s summit, said a Nepal-based expedition organiser.
Shrinivas Sainis Dattatraya’s family members have also gone to Nepal to meet the rescue team, added Nepal Guide Treks and Expedition owner Prakash Chandra Devkota.
His company and Seven Summit Treks, a Nepal-based adventure travel operator, organised Shrinivas’ Everest ascent. Devkota told The Straits Times (ST) on Monday that teams consisting of three Sherpas each have been searching for the 39-year-old.
Devkota also shared photos of the climber reaching the summit last Friday before he went missing.
In the photos, Shrinivas, a senior manager for software engineering at real estate tech firm JLL Technologies, is wearing bright orange winter wear, sunglasses and an oxygen mask, surrounded by colourful prayer flags marking the 8,849-metre summit.
He was clutching a rope with his right hand, and stands upright on the peak.
In another picture, Shrinivas lies on his back, surrounded by three others in similar mountain climbing wear. One of them snaps a shot of him with a smartphone.
ST had reported last week that, using his satellite phone, Shrinivas last sent a text message to his wife Sushma Soma, 36, last Friday, saying he had reached Everest’s summit.
But he told her he had high-altitude cerebral oedema (Hace), a severe type of high-altitude illness that could prove fatal, and was not likely to make it back down.
Soma learnt at 2am on Saturday that the two Sherpas he was with, and another climber in the group, made it down from the mountain, but her husband never did. In a 90-second video, seen by ST, the other climber described how they came down the mountain.
The man in a black T-shirt, whom the speaker off-camera referred to as “Martin”, said the group reached the summit around 9am.
The man said he was alone, while Shrivinas was with the two Sherpas.
He said he had run down to wait at Camp Four, the final camp before mountaineers reach the summit.
Devkota said one of the Sherpas, Dendi (The Straits Times, pic above) had tried to save Shrinivas, but he did not give more details.
He said Dendi had suffered frostbite to his fingers and was hospitalised.
