Everest deaths in 2026, the five names and the sixth man who came back alive

Five people died on Mount Everest in the 2026 season. That is the confirmed toll, and it sits against a record 1,008 summits from 495 permits — the busiest year the mountain has ever had, and by the ratio that matters one of its safest. Three of the five were Nepali, two were Indian clients, and every death happened on the Nepal side between 3 and 22 May. A sixth name still appears on some lists. He is alive.

Every Everest death in 2026, named and dated

This is the full list for the season, in order. Where a cause was never formally stated we have left it blank rather than guess — on Everest the difference between exhaustion, altitude illness and a cardiac event is often never established, and inventing one would be the easiest lie in this trade.

Ages for the two Indian climbers were not published, and no official cause was released for the first two deaths. Treat the season as provisional in one narrow sense: the Himalayan Database, the archive that eventually becomes the historical record, finalises its season figures well after the fact, and Wikipedia’s list of Everest deaths has not been updated past 2024. The count of five is what the season record supports today. The same season also produced the mountain’s largest ever clean-up haul.

Who they were, and where the mountain took them

Two of the three Nepalis who died were high-altitude workers — the men who fix the ropes, carry the loads and cross the icefall dozens of times so that a client crosses it four. Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, 51, from Gudel, died at around 5,200 m on the walk in, before the climbing had even begun. Phura Gyaljen Sherpa was 20 years old, from Thame, and the grandson of Ang Rita Sherpa, the climber the Himalaya knew as the Snow Leopard. He slipped on the Lhotse Face below Camp 3.

Bijaya Ghimire Bishwakarma, 35, died between Base Camp and Camp 1 on an acclimatisation rotation through the Khumbu Icefall. The season log records him as the first Nepali Dalit climber to have summited Everest — a man who had already carried something heavier than a load up that mountain.

Sandeep Are and Arun Kumar Tiwari both summited on 22 May and both died coming down. Their expedition operator reported altitude-related illness as the cause, and noted that both had been unwell on the way up. That is the oldest pattern on this mountain and the most preventable one: the summit is the halfway point, and the decision that kills you is usually the one you made two hours before you turned around.

The sixth name that most lists still carry

Hillary Dawa Sherpa, 52, was reported missing near Camp 3 on 29 May after becoming separated from his client at around 7,500 m on the descent. He was written up as presumed dead, and he still appears in some 2026 death tallies for that reason.

On 4 June a rubbish-collection crew from the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, working above Base Camp, saw a man sliding slowly down through the Khumbu Icefall. He had been six days alone above 5,400 m with no food, water or supplemental oxygen. He was flown to Kathmandu with severe frostbite to his hands, and he lived. If you find a source putting Everest’s 2026 toll at six, this is the sixth — and the number should be five.

How 2026 compares with 2023, 2024 and 2025

Five deaths is not a good year so much as an ordinary one that happened during an extraordinary crowd. 2023 remains the modern high at 18. What makes 2026 unusual is the denominator: more people stood on the summit than in any season on record, and fewer of them died than the mountain’s long-run rate would predict.

Across the mountain’s recorded history there have been 339 deaths against 13,737 summits — roughly one death for every 40 summits. In 2026 the same crude ratio came out at about one death for every 200. Crude is the right word: plenty of people die on Everest without ever summiting, so the measure flatters a big season. But the direction is real, and it is mostly down to better forecasting, tighter weather windows and more oxygen carried higher.

From the trail · Everest

What actually kills people on Everest

Over the whole recorded history of the mountain, avalanche and falling account for almost half of all deaths between them, and altitude illness for another one in seven. Note what is not on this list: cold alone, or bad luck. The two big killers are terrain hazards you can only manage by being in the right place at the right hour, which is exactly what a season’s worth of death-zone physiology comes down to.

One figure in that record deserves its own line: 53% of everyone who has died on Everest was climbing without supplemental oxygen. And more than 200 of the dead are still on the mountain, which is why the army-led recovery campaign that ran alongside the 2026 season mattered as much as the summit count did.

What this means if you are walking to Base Camp

None of the five people above died on the trek. They died climbing, above 5,200 m, on ground no trekker ever sets foot on — the Khumbu Icefall, the Lhotse Face, the summit ridge. Everest Base Camp is a walk to 5,364 m. It is a different activity with a different risk profile, and confusing the two is the single most common mistake in the questions we get after a season like this.

Everest deaths 2026, the questions people actually ask

How many people died on Everest in 2026?

Five. All five died on the Nepal side of the mountain between 3 and 22 May 2026. No fatality has been reported from the Tibetan north side this season.

Why do some sources say six died on Everest in 2026?

Because Hillary Dawa Sherpa, 52, was reported missing near Camp 3 on 29 May and written up as presumed dead. He was found alive in the Khumbu Icefall on 4 June, six days later, and survived. Lists compiled before that date carry him as a fatality.

Was 2026 a deadly Everest season?

No. It was the busiest season ever recorded and one of the least deadly per climber. Five deaths compares with 18 in 2023, 8 in 2024 and 5 in 2025, and 2026 produced more summits than any of them.

How many people have died on Everest in total?

339 recorded deaths against 13,737 summits through the end of 2025. More than 200 bodies are believed to remain on the mountain, most of them above 8,000 m where recovery is close to impossible.

Is the Everest Base Camp trek dangerous?

It is not the same risk as climbing. The trek tops out at 5,364 m and involves no technical ground, no icefall and no death zone. The real hazard is altitude illness from ascending too quickly, and it is managed by itinerary design rather than by courage.

Season figures, named fatalities and historical death and summit totals: alanarnette.com Everest 2026 season summary and Everest by the Numbers, 2026 edition. Survival of Hillary Dawa Sherpa: ABC News. Cause-of-death breakdown covers all recorded Everest fatalities to the end of 2025.

Cover photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).