Australian teen climbs Mount Everest
An Australian academic and a Dutch mountaineer have died of altitude sickness on Mount Everest, the first fatalities since expeditions resumed this year.
The Australian climber has been identified as Monash University academic Maria Strydom, a lecturer with the Melbourne university's Department of Banking and Finance, a Monash University spokeswoman confirmed.
Dr Strydom had been travelling in Nepal for more than a month with her husband and 10 other climbers. 
The 34-year-old was on her way down from Camp 4 to Camp 3 when she fell ill and died on Saturday afternoon, Pasang Phurba Sherpa, a board director at Seven Summit Treks, said.
"After reaching the summit yesterday she said she was feeling very weak and suffering from a loss of energy... signs of altitude sickness," Pasang said.
A vegan, Dr Strydom was motivated to tackle Everest by challenging the diet's stereotypes. 
"It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak," Dr Strydom said in   March. "By climbing the seven summits we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more."
Originally from Africa, Dr Strydom was an experienced climber and had previously supported a ban on novice climbers tackling Everest. In the past eight years the academic scaled Denali in Alaska, Aconcagua in Argentina, Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, and Kilimanjaro in Africa. 
"We've all heard stories of frostbite and having to turn around from excessive waiting times due to inexperienced people blocking routes," she said in   March. "This can lead to life-threatening situations and death where Sherpas and other climbers have to risk their lives to attempt rescues."
The Dutch mountaineer, named as Eric Arnold, also suffered a bout of altitude sickness and died at Camp 4 late Friday, according to Seven Summit Treks. 
Mr Arnold had enough bottled oxygen with him as well as climbing partners, but he complained of getting weak and died before he was able to reach a lower altitude, Phurba said.
He said no more details were available because of poor communication with the crew on the mountain, and that it would take days and several people to bring Mr Arnold's body down.
Mr Arnold was from the Dutch city of Rotterdam, according to his Twitter account. The last Twitter post, made Friday, said, "Mountain climber Eric Arnold reaches the summit of Mount Everest at the fifth attempt."
Meanwhile, a 45-year-old woman from Norway, Siv Harstad, was helped down from the top of Everest on Saturday by two Sherpa guides after suffering from snow blindness, Norwegian news agency NTB said.
A Nepali sherpa who was fixing ropes on nearby Lhotse, the world's fourth highest peak at 8516 metres (27,940 feet), fell to his death this week. More than 330 climbers have reached the top of Everest this month.
The tragedies come as Queensland teen Alyssa Azar succeeded in her bid to become the youngest  Australian in history to climb Mount Everest.
Nepal's mountaineering community is still recovering from the past two climbing seasons, which were hit by disasters. Nepal's devastating earthquake last year caused an avalanche that killed 19 people at base camp, and in 2014, an avalanche above base camp killed 16 Sherpa guides.
Favourable weather has allowed hundreds of climbers to scale the 8850-metre mountain since last week. More than 330 climbers have reached the summit from Nepal since   May 11, and several more have done so from the northern routes in Tibet.
The popular spring climbing season begins in   March and runs through   May, before harsh weather conditions make it especially difficult to climb.
With DAP, AP