US climber who summited tallest mountain on every continent dies on Everest

A U.S. man who climbed the tallest mountain on every continent has died on Mount Everest after becoming ill due to high altitude sickness, according to Nepalese Sherpa guides who were assisting him.

ABC News reported Thursday that 55-year-old Donald Lynn Cash of Utah died during his descent from Everest on Wednesday after his party was unable to save him through CPR and other efforts to raise his blood oxygen level.

Cash was considered an experienced climber who had conquered the “Seven Summits,” the tallest mountains on every continent — including Everest — according to ABC News.

{mosads}His death was the second on the mountain that day after an Indian woman, 55-year-old Anjali Kulkani, died during her own descent from the peak on Wednesday. Reports of as many as 200 climbers at the peak of the mountain Wednesday causing a traffic jam may have contributed to the deaths, according to ABC News and the South China Morning Post.

The wait to descend from Hillary’s Step, a landmark near the mountain’s peak, was reportedly as long as two to three hours due to the influx of climbers taking advantage of the first fair weather conditions in days.

“She had to wait for a long time to reach the summit and descend,” one Sherpa guide traveling with Kulkani told the South China Morning Post. “She couldn’t move down on her own and died as Sherpa guides brought her down.”

Cash’s family told ABC News that he was proud to just have made it to the mountain’s peak.

“He wanted to do this,” Brandalin Cash, his daughter, told a local news affiliate. “He wanted to be on that mountain. He wanted to show that he could accomplish dreams and that others can too.”