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Fatal Accident on the Lhotse Face
Base Camp - Updated Saturday, May 4, 2002

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Everest 2002 Dispatch Photo
West Face of Lhotse
(New Window)
May 4, 2002 (Update by Bryce Brown, M.D., Alpine Ascents International Expedition Doctor): Deceased is 38-year-old British climber Peter Legate. He was on the permit of Himalayan Guides (Henry Todd).

Legate had spent two nights acclimatizing at Camp III. In the early morning of April 30th, Legate was descending the fixed lines below Camp III on the Lhotse Face. The accident was witnessed by a Hungarian climber, also with Himalayan Guides, who was several hundred meters below Legate when the accident occurred.

It is unclear what went wrong on the fixed lines, but somehow Legate fell and was not attached to the lines. He fell several hundred meters down the Lhotse Face, coming to rest in the bergschrund at the bottom of the Face.

Rescue efforts were attempted. The Hungarian climber summoned the help of the International Mountain Guides' (IMG) guides who were at Camp II. The climber was lowered into the crevasse and found Peter's body. Some personal effects were recovered, but it was impossible to recover the body. The evidence was that Legate sustained fatal injuries during the fall and not as a result of landing in the bergschrund.

I had the opportunity to meet Peter on several occasions, he was a friendly, quiet fellow, who was climbing Everest in part to raise money for a children's hospital in London. He was also involved with Imperial College in London to carry and fix some weather instruments at the South Col.

A memorial service was held on Peter's behalf at Base Camp on May 1st. Alpine Ascents attended the ceremony. All of us here at Base Camp are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and extend our warmest condolences to Peter's family and friends.

April 30, 2002
A fatal accident on the Lhotse Face early this morning took the life of British climber Peter Legate, the BBC reported today. Alpine Ascents International guide Vern Tejas first reported the tragedy on MountainZone.com earlier today.

Quoting sources from Nepal's ministry of tourism, the BBC reported that Legate, 38, a business manager from Lymington, Hampshire, reportedly lost his footing below Camp III and fell about 200 meters (655 feet) into a crevasse.

Legate, who previously had summited North America's highest peak, Denali, was part of the U.K.'s multinational Himalayan Guides team of seven climbers attempting Everest via the South Col route.

Legate was providing dispatches via a diary to to BBCi Southampton, last reporting on the team's trek to Base Camp on April 22.

MountainZone.com will release further details as they are verified.

MountainZone.com Staff

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