An American climber died attempting to scale the world’s fifth-highest mountain, Makalu, in the Himalayas, his expedition organizer said Monday. It was the second death of this climbing season.
Alexander Pancoe, 39, died at Camp 2 of the 27,838-foot mountain Sunday evening.
“He had descended after an acclimatization rotation to Camp Three, and was not feeling well,” Iswari Paudel of Himalayan Guides Nepal told the AFP news agency.
Paudel said that attempts were being made to bring his body down.
Pancoe, an accomplished climber and graduate of Northwestern University, had survived a brain tumor when he was younger, CBS Chicago reported. He had completed the Explorer’s Grand Slam, a challenge that involves climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents and then skiing to both the North and South Pole.
Pancoe survived a near-fatal fall in 2018, when a piece of rock broke off in his hand, and he hit a sharp edge, CBS Chicago reported. He badly injured his leg and suffered frostbite before crawling to get cell service and being airlifted to safety.
Pancoe was recently fighting chronic myeloid leukemia and was attempting to climb Makalu to raise funds for the pediatric blood cancer program of the Lurie Children’s Hospital, based in Chicago. He had already raised $1 million to help fund clinical trials and other programs there.
“Alex’s legacy is defined by his extraordinary courage, boundless generosity and unwavering commitment to improving the lives of children and families facing serious health challenges,” the hospital said in a statement.
In 2019, CBS Chicago reported that he dedicated his climb of Mount Everest to Serena Lewis, a teenager with whom he shared a special bond — they had both survived brain tumors thanks to doctors at Lurie Children’s Hospital.
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“It’s going to be a huge challenge for me — climbing at altitude is plenty hard without a chronic ailment — but I look forward to rising to the challenge,” he said on his website, Peaks of Mind.
An Austrian climber died while descending Nepal’s Ama Dablam after a successful summit last month, the first death of the summit season.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and welcomes climbers from around the world every year during the spring and autumn climbing seasons.
It has already issued nearly 500 permits for its mountains this season, including 214 for Everest.
contributed to this report.
