Search teams unable to find missing Indian-origin Everest climber from S'pore

Singapore, May 29 (IANS) An Indian-origin climber from Singapore who reached the Mount Everest summit on May 19 has still not been located in spite of best efforts by search and rescue teams, an Instagram post by the climber's wife said.

Shrinivas Sainis Dattatraya, 39, left for Mount Everest on April 1, and was due to return home on June 4.

He scaled the world's tallest peak on May 19 but told his wife he had come down with high-altitude cerebral oedema and was unlikely to make it down the mountain.

Interspersing her message between pictures of Shrinivas on various mountain peaks, his wife Sushma Soma said: "He was 39, and in his glorious and rich life, he lived fearlessly and to the fullest. He explored the depth of the sea and scaled the greatest heights of the Earth."

"And now, Shri is in the mountains, where he felt most at home," The Straits Times quoted Soma as saying.

Groups of three Sherpas each had been searching for Shrinivas, Nepal Guide Treks and Expedition -- one of the companies that co-organised Shrinivas' expedition -- had told the The Straits Times earlier.

The climber had left Singapore with the aim of summiting Mount Everest and then Mount Lhotse in a single expedition.

According to Soma, he would have been one of the few in Southeast Asia and the first Singaporean Indian to do so.

"Only few can dare to dream the way he did," she said, adding that her husband was "judicious, meticulous and sharp".

"Having successively scaled a higher mountain every year, including all 8,163m of Manaslu, Shri understood the gravity of such dreams."

Manaslu, located in the Nepalese Himalayas, is the eighth-highest mountain in the world.

She said: "I witnessed his focus, rigour and discipline in training to achieve this feat while also managing his work commitments as an executive director."

In a statement last week, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) expressed its condolences to the family.

"Since the onset, the Singapore High Commission in New Delhi has been in close contact with the family and will continue to extend consular assistance and support to the family during this difficult time. The Ministry would like to express its appreciation to all authorities for their support in the search and rescue efforts," a Ministry spokesperson said.

In her message, Soma thanked family and friends, as well as Singapore's MFA and the Indian High Commission of Singapore, as well as the Nepalese and Chinese governments for their support.