Local tour organiser Keshav Paudel told AFP news agency that Bagwan had been "stuck in the traffic for more than 12 hours and was exhausted".
A 65-year-old Austrian climber died on the northern Tibet side of the mountain.
An Indian and an American lost their lives on the mountain on Wednesday, while an Irish professor, Séamus Lawless, is presumed dead after falling on 16 May.
Conditions this year have also been worse than usual, with high winds leaving a large number of climbers a narrow time frame to reach the summit.
Five people are known to have died on Everest and one in Lhotse in the spring season last year.
The number of people climbing Everest in 2019 could exceed last year's record of 807 people reaching the summit.
The rising numbers of people climbing - and dying - on Everest has led for calls for permits to be limited.
Ben Fogle, the adventurer and television presenter who climbed the mountain last year, called for "London Marathon style lottery for climbing permits" in a Twitter post.
LONDON — The deaths of three more climbers on Mount Everest have raised concerns that a traffic jam of mountaineers near the summit is making the ascent even more treacherous.
Officials and mountaineering agencies confirmed to NBC News Friday that three Indian nationals died on Thursday while trying to climb the world’s highest mountain, which sits on the border of Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of South-west China.
Nihal Bagwan, 27, died after collapsing from exhaustion on the balcony area of the mountain where he was waiting in a line to reach the summit, according to Krishma Poudel of Peak Promotion, a mountaineering agency in Nepal.
Anjali Kulkarni, 54, and Kalpana Das, 49, also died while descending the mountain on Thursday, according to Mira Acharya, the director of Nepal’s Department of Tourism. Their cause of deaths is not yet known, she added.
The news comes after it was confirmed that an American man from Utah also died earlier this week having reached the summit and fulfilling his life’s dream, his children told NBC affiliate KSL-TV. Don Cash, 55, was a passionate climber who had left his job to join the "Seven Summits Club," — in which climbers attempt to summit the highest mountain on every continent.
Don Cash died this week on Mount Everest. The 55-year-old had just completed his goal of reaching the summit of the highest mountain on every continent.
Five climbers have died on Mount Everest since the beginning of the climbing season which started on May 14, according to Acharya. She said the fifth climber was a 28-year-old Indian national, Mr. Ravi, who died on May 17.
Tweeting a picture of a long line of climbers waiting to get to the summit on Wednesday, the British broadcaster and adventurer Ben Fogle, the U.N. Patron of the Wilderness, called on the countries that share Everest to limit the number of climbers on the mountain suggesting instead for a marathon-style lottery system for climbing permits.
Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of the mountain in 1953, attempting the 29,029 ft peak has become more and more popular. Expeditions can cost tens of thousands of dollars, according to the British Mountaineering Council. A total of 560 people reached the summit of Everest last year, according to Acharya.
Poudel explained the mountain was busy during peak season. “There’s a long queue during the summertime as there’s a limited window to climb — a lot of people tried to summit yesterday and day before," she said, using a British word for line.
Poudel said that lines to reach the summit started from the balcony area of the mountain but said she did not know how long Bagwan had been waiting there. “Before you reach the summit you have to wait and every minute counts at the height,” she explained, but cautioned that she could not say if waiting there had caused Bagwan’s death.
“You’ve been walking since 8 a.m. the day before without eating or a proper rest and exposed to that temperature there’s a high risk of being frostbitten and hypothermia,” she added.
Poudel said that Bagwan was barely conscious when Sherpas brought him down to Camp 4 — the last pit-stop ahead of what is commonly referred to as the “death zone” before the summit. He died there at around 11.30 p.m. Thursday night, she added.
She would not comment on whether officials should limit the number of climbers on the mountain but acknowledged that if there were fewer people it would reduce the risk that they suffer from exhaustion in the line. “Waiting for hours at that kind of height really takes a toll,” she said.
Acharya, of the Department of Tourism, said she could not comment on the question of whether the lines were dangerous for climbers.
Saphora Smith
Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital.
Local tour organiser Keshav Paudel told AFP news agency that Bagwan had been "stuck in the traffic for more than 12 hours and was exhausted".
A 65-year-old Austrian climber died on the northern Tibet side of the mountain.
An Indian and an American lost their lives on the mountain on Wednesday, while an Irish professor, Séamus Lawless, is presumed dead after falling on 16 May.
Five people are known to have died on Everest and one in Lhotse in the spring season last year.
The number of people climbing Everest in 2019 could exceed last year's record of 807 people reaching the summit.
The rising numbers of people climbing - and dying - on Everest has led for calls for permits to be limited.
Ben Fogle, the adventurer and television presenter who climbed the mountain last year, called for "London Marathon style lottery for climbing permits" in a Twitter post.
Ever since I first stepped through the door behind me as Prime Minister, I have striven to make the United Kingdom a country that works not just for a privileged few, but for everyone. And to honor the result of the EU referendum. Back in 2016, we gave the British people a choice. Against all predictions, the British people voted to leave the European Union. I feel as certain today as I did three years ago that in a democracy, if you give people a choice you have a duty to implement what they decide. I have done my best to do that. I negotiated the terms of our exit and a new relationship with our closest neighbors that protects jobs, our security and our Union. I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back that deal. Sadly, I have not been able to do so. I tried three times. I believe it was right to persevere, even when the odds against success seemed high. But it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of the country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort. So I am today announcing that I will resign as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on Friday 7 June so that a successor can be chosen. I have agreed with the Party Chairman and with the Chairman of the 1922 Committee that the process for electing a new leader should begin in the following week. I have kept Her Majesty the Queen fully informed of my intentions, and I will continue to serve as her Prime Minister until the process has concluded. It is, and will always remain, a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit. It will be for my successor to seek a way forward that honors the result of the referendum. To succeed, he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not. Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise. For many years the great humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton – who saved the lives of hundreds of children by arranging their evacuation from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia through the Kindertransport – was my constituent in Maidenhead. At another time of political controversy, a few years before his death, he took me to one side at a local event and gave me a piece of advice. He said, ‘Never forget that compromise is not a dirty word. Life depends on compromise.’ He was right. As we strive to find the compromises we need in our politics – whether to deliver Brexit, or to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland – we must remember what brought us here. Because the referendum was not just a call to leave the EU but for profound change in our country. A call to make the United Kingdom a country that truly works for everyone. I am proud of the progress we have made over the last three years. We have completed the work that David Cameron and George Osborne started: the deficit is almost eliminated, our national debt is falling and we are bringing an end to austerity. My focus has been on ensuring that the good jobs of the future will be created in communities across the whole country, not just in London and the South East, through our Modern Industrial Strategy. We have helped more people than ever enjoy the security of a job. We are building more homes and helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder - so young people can enjoy the opportunities their parents did. And we are protecting the environment, eliminating plastic waste, tackling climate change and improving air quality. This is what a decent, moderate and patriotic Conservative Government, on the common ground of British politics, can achieve - even as we tackle the biggest peacetime challenge any government has faced. I know that the Conservative Party can renew itself in the years ahead. That we can deliver Brexit and serve the British people with policies inspired by our values. Security; freedom; opportunity. Those values have guided me throughout my career. But the unique privilege of this office is to use this platform to give a voice to the voiceless, to fight the burning injustices that still scar our society. That is why I put proper funding for mental health at the heart of our NHS long-term plan. It is why I am ending the postcode lottery for survivors of domestic abuse. It is why the Race Disparity Audit and gender pay reporting are shining a light on inequality, so it has nowhere to hide. And that is why I set up the independent public inquiry into the tragedy at Grenfell Tower – to search for the truth, so nothing like it can ever happen again, and so the people who lost their lives that night are never forgotten. Because this country is a Union. Not just a family of four nations. But a union of people – all of us. Whatever our background, the color of our skin, or who we love. We stand together. And together we have a great future. Our politics may be under strain, but there is so much that is good about this country. So much to be proud of. So much to be optimistic about. I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold – the second female Prime Minister but certainly not the last. I do so with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.
