The body of Garsfontein matriculant and Australian lecturer Dr Maria Strydom might never be brought down from Mount Everest where she died over the weekend, the expedition company said on Monday.
Strydom died after suffering altitude sickness about 850m before reaching the summit.
This came after being forced to turn back through the “death zone”, an area notorious for low atmosphere and fierce winds which give oxygen-starved and frost-bitten climbers a difficult time.
The 34-year-old banking expert and her vet husband Dr Robert Gropel were part of an expedition which had spent seven weeks trying to reach the summit and were 8 000m up when they were overtaken by mountain sickness, online reports from the expedition company said.
“Marisa was doing well until the Balcony’, but became very slow after this and decided to turn around on the South Summit at 8am on Saturday.
That would normally have given her enough time to descend safely, but her condition deteriorated rapidly, said expedition leader Arnold Coster.
Strydom had become very confused and could hardly move, and while some of the climbers went on ahead, others had stayed with her and struggled all night to bring her down.
“By 2am on Saturday she was back at Camp 4 after spending 31 hours above the camp in an area known as the Death Zone,” Coster added. She died at the camp later that night.
Her husband also suffered from the elements on the mountain and was brought down and taken to a Kathmandu hospital for treatment, while teams of rescuers were reportedly being assembled to retrieve her body, the expedition leader said.
Hundreds of bodies remain scattered along the mountain due to the difficulty in bringing them down, Coster said.
While her family flew out to bring her body back, the expedition manager said bringing her body down was not a certainty because of the difficulty involved in doing so.
Meanwhile, tributes poured in to the family of the adventurer, with many describing her as a risk taker who knew what she was doing when she went on the climb.
“She strongly believed she would return safely, even if it meant that she didn’t summit,” her friend Carly Moulang said.
Montash University said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the loss of Dr Strydom on Mount Everest.”
Strydom was a passionate animal lover who supported many animal rescues, the Australian Cootamundra Pound said.
“She has been invaluable to many rescued dogs from our pound,” they said on their Facebook page.
Her mother Maritha Strydom called her a “flower in heaven”, while others wished her husband a safe and speedy recovery.
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