Everest climb leader denies knowledge of dying climber

The Mount Everest expedition leader criticised for leading his team past a British climber who later died on the mountain has said that at no stage during his team's ascent did he know a person was in trouble near the peak.

In a detailed statement to news agency The Associated Press (AP), Russell Brice contradicted comments made earlier by other climbers in his group, who said Brice knew about the climber, Englishman David Sharp, and told them there was nothing that could be done for him.

New Zealand double amputee Mark Inglis, who was climbing with Brice, has been harshly criticised after admitting he was one of more than 40 climbers reported to have seen Sharp as he lay dying and who, like almost all the others, continued to summit of the world's highest mountain without offering assistance.

Sharp, 34, of Guisborough, died in a snow cave 300 metres from the mountain's peak, apparently from oxygen deprivation suffered during his solo descent from the summit.

Brice told AP on Saturday that "at no stage during the ascent did I know that there was a man in trouble".

"There were never any radio conversations concerning the sighting of David Sharp between my team members and myself during the ascent," he told The Associated Press in a detailed statement.

The statement appears to contradict earlier reports, which claimed the party had radioed Brice , who was at base camp, and he advised them to carry on with the summit bid without attempting a rescue.

Brice was quoted by Christchurch's The Press newspaper as saying it had been a "devastating" experience.

"Yes, we let him die, but we could not help him. It was a very, very complex situation. We let him die, but then we found him, too," he told the paper.

The circumstances of Sharp's death have prompted a debate about the ethics of high-altitude climbing, and prompted stinging rebukes from original Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, who said it was "horrifying" climbers could leave a dying man and proceed toward the summit instead.

Hillary said he would have abandoned his own pioneering climb in 1953 to save another life.

- NZPA