Climber dies in 5,000-foot fall after reaching mountain's summit

A German climber fell about 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) to his death on Monday, a day after reaching the summit of Ama Dablam mountain, according to a trekking company operator. Wolfgang Waschiczek, 57, was reported missing from Camp 3, which lies at around 6,200 meters. He had been resting after reaching the 6,812-meter summit on Sunday, before his planned descent. "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 left him in the tent for a few minutes to return borrowed equipment, telling him to stay inside. When he returned, Waschiczek was missing. Waschiczek's body was spotted by another Sherpa at Camp 2 at around 8 am on Monday at an altitude of about 4,600 metres, Thapa said. The body was retrieved by helicopter during the afternoon and taken to Lukla, a town known as a gateway for mountaineers and trekkers heading to the Everest region. It was then flown to the capital, Kathmandu, where a postmortem will be performed at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. "Once the pos...