One of the country’s most successful mountaineers has died while climbing the world's tenth-highest peak Mt Annapurna in Nepal on Monday night.
According to expedition organisers, Noel Hanna, a 10-time Everest summiteer from Co Down, died at Camp IV after he returned from the summit point.
Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal.
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According to Mingma Sherpa, chairman at Seven Summit Treks, Noel Hanna, the first person from Ireland to reach the summit of K2 during the winter season, “breathed his last in Camp IV last night”.
Efforts are underway to bring his body back to base camp, organisers said according to the Himalayan Times.
A renowned adventurer of the highest order Hanna scaled summits and competed in sports adventures the world over.
Irish mountaineer and climber Kerry based Pat Falvey confirmed his death this morning saying: “It is with great sadness and shock that it has been reported by The Himalayan Times that friend and climbing colleague Noel Hanna has died on returning from the summit of 8091 meter mountain Annapurna.
May he Rest in Peace, my sympathy to Lynne and all his family. We are waiting for further updates.
“Unfortunately it’s the game we play. It’s not called the death zone for nothing. By the law of averages the mountains do take a life back. He was doing what he loved and he knew this. We have lost one of the best.”
Hanna, from Co Down, a married former bodyguard, scaled the summit last Wednesday but news of his success only filtered through on Sunday due to safety concerns.
Hanna and his wife Lynne were the only married couple in the world to have successfully summited Mt Everest in 2009 and 2016 from both sides.
Hanna has helped people worldwide to scale some of the world’s most difficult mountains.
In February 2019 Noel accompanied the youngest person ever to climb to the summit of the highest volcano in N.America – Pico De Orizabo 5636mts in Mexico – 12 year old American Decatur Boland along with his father Daniel.
Also in the same year he accompanied Sarah Khumalo to the summit of Mt. Everest 8848 mts – making her the 1st Black African female to reach the summit of the highest mountain on earth.
Earlier this year he attempted to become the first Irish person to scale the world’s second highest mountain K2 in Winter but was forced off the mountain due to severe weather.
Almost four years ago on May 16, 2019, Hanna accompanied Séamus ‘Shay’ Lawless, 39 from Bray, Co Wicklow, who died just hours after summiting Everest.
Mr Lawless, a professor of artificial intelligence at Trinity College Dublin was fulfilling his life-long dream when he fell up to 500 metres during his descent from an altitude of 8,300m, in an area known as the balcony.
It was his ambition to climb Everest before he would have turned 40.
Mr Lawless attempted the mammoth climb to raise up to €25,000 for Barretstown, a charity dedicated to seriously ill children and their families.
An unsuccessful search was launched in a bid to find the popular professor but it was eventually called off after more than €200,000 was raised by the public to fund it.
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