Mountaineer Seo Sung-ho died during an attempt to scale all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 m without oxygen. Seo, a member of a team led by Kim Chang-ho, died on Tuesday while taking a break on their descent from Everest.

The team left their camp at 7,950 m above sea level on the South Col of Everest at 9 p.m. on Sunday and reached the 8,848-m top 13 hours later.

Seo started the descent and returned to the camp at around 8 p.m. on Monday but was found dead at 5 a.m. the next morning.

Mountaineers say a round trip from the camp to the summit usually takes 12 to 15 hours, but it took Seo nearly 24. As it was an expedition without supplementary oxygen, he must have been extremely tired.

Seo reached 12 out of 14 peaks and had high hopes of becoming the sixth Korean eight-thousander. He had already scaled Everest in 2006 with an oxygen tank.

