German Climber Dies in Nearly 5,000-Foot Fall on Nepal's Ama Dablam After Summiting

A German climber died on Monday after falling roughly 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) on Ama Dablam in Nepal, one day after he reached the mountain's summit, according to a trekking company operator.

Wolfgang Waschiczek, 57, was reported missing from Camp 3, which sits at about 6,200 meters. He had been resting there following his Sunday ascent of the 6,812-meter peak and was preparing to head down.

"After a successful summit, he spent a night at Camp 3 on Sunday, and on Monday morning, his guide found him missing," Gokul Thapa, head of the trekking company Real Himalaya, told AFP.

Thapa said Waschiczek's personal trekking guide, Sonam Lama, had stepped away for a few minutes to return some borrowed equipment. Before leaving, the guide told the climber to stay inside the tent. When the guide came back, Waschiczek was gone.

Another Sherpa spotted the body at Camp 2 at around 8 am on Monday, at an altitude of about 4,600 meters, Thapa said. A helicopter recovered it during the afternoon and took it to Lukla, a town that serves as a gateway for mountaineers and trekkers bound for the Everest region.

The body was then flown to Kathmandu, where a postmortem will take place at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. "Once the postmortem is done, the body will be handed over to his family members through the embassy," Thapa told AFP.

Thapa said this was Waschiczek's second trip to Nepal. The climber had visited in 2024 for a trek. "His passing saddened us," Thapa added.

Ama Dablam is in Nepal's Khumbu region and is regarded as a technically demanding mountain with steep faces. Waschiczek's death is the first on the peak this year. In October last year, two climbers died there during expeditions: a 65-year-old French climber and a 66-year-old South Korean climber. More than 300 climbers are attempting Ama Dablam this season.

Separately, the Reuters news agency reported that two Japanese climbers died last week on another peak in western Nepal.

Other mountaineering incidents have marked the year. In July, a famed British Nepali climber and nine others were swept away by an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan. In May, an American climber named Johannesen, co-founder of the U.S.-based outfitter Dash Adventures, was struck by an avalanche at around 23,600 feet on Nepal's Mount Makalu while descending, after she had reached the 27,838-foot summit.