At first Robert Gropel thought his wife, Maria Strydom, was simply exhausted from the effort of climbing Everest. The Australian couple had halted at well above 8,000 metres, in an area known as the death zone, as Strydom said she could not continue. Gropel asked her for permission to go on to the summit.

What neither of them realised was that it was not simply exhaustion but altitude sickness, and that it would cost 34-year-old Strydom her life.

In a moving interview with Australian television, Gropel described the hours leading to his wife’s death and the decisions they both made that for him were tinged with grief and regret.

Above 8,000 metres, even with supplemental oxygen, the risks increase markedly. The blood thickens which, combined with dehydration and effort, can trigger altitude sickness, which at its worst can cause a lethal buildup of fluid on the lungs and brain.

Complicating the issue is that it affects individuals in different ways, and the onset of the first symptoms is sometimes mistaken for tiredness or a minor illness. Decision-making can become more difficult. Small mistakes – a dropped item of equipment, a stumble, something as simple as not drinking enough or the question of when to turn back or carry on – can have multiplying and serious consequences.

With the summit apparently only 15 minutes away, Gropel asked his wife whether he should continue without her.

Robert Gropel said he blamed himself for Maria Strydom’s death. Photograph: Narendra Shrestha/EPA

“I asked: ‘Do you mind if I go on,’ and she said: ‘Yes, you go on, I’ll wait for you here,’” he told the Seven Network. “From that position the summit didn’t look that far.

“I didn’t want to separate from her. I wanted her to keep going,” he said of the decision to leave her and press on to the top. “I also understood she was very exhausted. I just ran up and down and it didn’t mean anything to me. Because we do everything together and everything else we did together was much more special.

“When I made it to the summit of Everest it wasn’t special to me, because I didn’t have her there.”

After he returned to Strydom the pair began their descent, but it was soon clear that something was seriously amiss. Strydom began hallucinating, struggled to walk and was talking incoherently, perhaps the result of a stroke triggered by cerebral odema.

Helped at times by a group of sherpa guides, and at other times apparently struggling on his own, he shared oxygen with Strydom until that ran out and then, suffering the effects of altitude himself, recalled that he had medication for altitude sickness.

“It took a while for me to register that I had medication and so as soon as I realised I gave her a dexamethasone injection.”

But the long period spent high on the mountain was taking its toll on Strydom, who by the time she faded into unconsciousness had been without extra oxygen for 20 hours.

“I could see that her condition had deteriorated,” Gropel said. “She was going through periods of being lucid and periods of hallucinating.”

Gropel’s interviewer, Steve Pennells, said in the broadcast: “There was a point where they thought she would get better. Her condition had improved and she was taking medication and fluids and had made camp. And then overnight she just got worse.” Strydom died in Gropel’s arms on 20 May.



“Walking away was the hardest thing [for him],” Pennells said. “You can imagine, or hopefully you can’t, making the decision to come off the mountain knowing that the body of your wife is up there.”

Strydom, a university lecturer, and Gropel, a vet, had wanted to climb the highest mountains on each continent, a challenge known as the Seven Summits.

Gropel said: “She was my motivation idol, my hero, she was a very strong advocate for women, she was the perfect person. I’m just trying to be strong. I’m learning to cope and block out what causes sort of, breakdowns and trying to get the job done of bringing my wife home.

“I’m her husband, it’s my job to protect my wife and get her home and it’s just natural for me to blame myself. I still can’t look at any pictures of her because it breaks my heart.”



Sherpa climbers brought Strydom’s body down the mountain to Camp Two on Wednesday. A rescue helicopter picked it up and took it to Kathmandu on Friday.



“Her body has now been brought to Kathmandu from the mountain,” said Phu Tenzi Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks, which organised her expedition.