Slovak climber dies after historic ascent in Nepal

Ondrej Huserka, a Slovak mountaineer, died during the descent of the 7,234 meter high Langtang Lirung mountain in the Himalayas after a historic ascent of the East Face, the Slovak Climbing Association announced on Sunday .

“His family and friends must accept the idea that he is no longer with us,” wrote the SHS James organization in a statement, explaining that “weather conditions” did not allow an operation to be launched to find his body.

The 34-year-old climber, a member of the national mountaineering team, fell into a crevasse on Thursday, his Czech climbing partner Marek Holecek reported earlier on Facebook, after the two men had just made the first ascent of the East face never realized.

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“He hit an inclined surface after falling eight meters, then continued to slide along a maze into the depths of the glacier”before ending up stuck upside down, he recounted in a poignant story. Holecek joined him by abseiling and managed to extricate him but “he couldn't feel his legs and his arms were paralyzed”. “I stayed with him for four hours until he passed away”he wrote.

Described by the Slovak newspaper SME as “one of the best climbers” in the country, Ondrej Huserka had distinguished himself with climbs in the Alps, Patagonia, the Pamir Mountains and the Himalayas.

A Slovenian mountaineer, Tomaz Humar, 40, also died in 2009 in the Langtang Lirung massif, during a solo ascent of the south face.