Stricken climber left to his own fate on Everest

London: A stricken British adventurer was left to die at the top of Mount Everest after fellow climbers were forced to abandon him before they too became trapped.

Peter Kinloch, 28, was only 600ft into his descent from the summit of the world's tallest mountain when he suddenly began to stumble and complain he couldn't see properly.

Sherpas spent 12 hours helping him carry on through the freezing conditions. But with his health deteriorating and having managed to descend only another 200ft, his rescuers faced the horrifying realisation that they must leave him to his fate.

Kinloch was attempting the Seven Summit Challenge, taking on the tallest mountains on all seven continents. It has been achieved by only a handful of people.

Scaling the 29,029ft of Everest was his fifth summit, leaving the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia and Mount Vinson in Antartica to complete the challenge.

Kinloch, a police civilian worker described as "supremely physically fit and not the sort of person to take risks", wanted to do each climb wearing a hat and scarf of his beloved Inverness Caledonian Thistle football club.

It is thought his sudden loss of sight could have been caused by a brain haemorrhage. An unnamed member of his expedition team said the climb to the summit had been arduous but Kinloch had appeared healthy and in good spirits. Weather conditions at the top were sunny, but extremely cold and windy.

He said: "On the summit Peter was elated, cheery and bubbly. Earlier during the expedition, while dining with the team, he had said that climbing Everest would be the realisation of a dream he had had for 25 years.

"Descending, Peter surprisingly seemed to lose his co-ordination and took a few slips and stumbles. These moments of clumsiness were interspersed with normal walking."

A short time later, Kinloch told expedition leader David O'Brien that he had temporarily lost his sight.

"Peter seemed unsurprised about his blindness and explained to David that the blindness had happened before, although never in mountain conditions," the colleague said.

"Peter was perfectly coherent at this time and calmly explained that the condition was not snow blindness as he had no pain and he recognised the blindness from a previous episode."

Despite his calmness, three sherpas climbed up from a camp to help. Over four hours they managed to reach an area called Mushroom Rock at about 28,200ft well in the "death zone" above 26,000ft, where it is impossible for the human body to acclimatise.

The climber said: "Peter had initial signs of frostbite on two fingers. His speech and thinking seemed to remain sharp and he did not evidence any signs of altitude sickness. The three sherpas and David did everything they could to get Peter beyond this point for the next eight hours to no avail."

They administered high doses of oxygen and the steroid dexamathasone to treat altitude sickness before being forced to abandon Kinloch at 2am yesterday. His body could be one of many that remain on the mountain due to the difficulties of bringing them down.