It is proving to be a deadly season for mountaineers on Everest. One climber posted his concerns days before his death.
/ CNN
An Irish climber who died on Mt Everest this week reportedly sent a text to his pregnant wife saying he conquered the highest peak in the world.
Seamus Lawless became the 11th climber to die on the mountain in the past 10 days.
According to the Sun, Lawless sent atext message to his wife saying he'd done it before perishing on his descent from the mountain - falling on the 8200m high "balcony" area of Mt Everest.
Meanwhile, Australian climber Gillian Lee is recovering after being rescued from Mt Everest on his fourth attempt to scale the world's tallest peak.
The ABC reported the Canberra man was attempting to climb the mountain without the assistance of oxygen tanks and was found unconscious at an altitude of 7500m by Tibetan climbers last week.
He was taken to a Nepal hospital where his condition was improving. The China Daily reported the rescue team used a yak to drag him to safety.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance.
Adventure filmmaker Elia Saikaly posted a series of images to social media to show the "chaos" that unfolded during the mountain's infamous "deadly season" over the past fortnight. Saikaly said he "cannot believe what I saw up there".
Phase one complete with a week to spare. I hope people are now believing. I hope the support continues and #ProjectPossible meets the funding and sponsorship we still need. Strange how a photo of a queue has had the biggest response so far!! pic.twitter.com/ZIOCYPCjzf
"Death. Carnage. Chaos. Line-ups. Dead bodies on the route and in tents at camp 4. People who I tried to turn back who ended up dying. People being dragged down. Walking over bodies," he wrote.
"Everything you read in the sensational headlines all played out on our summit night."
He went on to describe the horror of watching climbers step over a dead body.
"The early morning light had revealed the gateway to the summit of Everest and in parallel a human being who had lost his life. Here we all were, chasing a dream and beneath our very feet there was a lifeless soul. Is this what Everest has become?"
Deaths on Everest
Eleven people have died in less than two weeks after poor weather cut the climbing window short, leaving mountaineers waiting in long queues to the summit, risking exhaustion and running out of oxygen.
At least four of the deaths have been blamed on overcrowding as teams sometimes waited for hours in the "death zone" where the cold is bitter, the air dangerously thin and the terrain treacherous.
