Boulder Attorney Among Climbers To Die On Mount Everest This Season
(CBS4) - A Boulder attorney is among 11 others who died during the peak of the climbing season on Mount Everest in Nepal. Reaching the top of the world was a challenge and a dream for 62-year-old Chris Kulish of Boulder.
Everest was to be his seventh summit on seven continents.
Video taken by Elia Saikaly on another trip shows what what he and climbers like Kulish must face.
A website called Climbing the Seven Summits had Kulish listed along with a video of the expedition leader talking with those at the top.
"...nice work you guys so happy to hear it. Amazing work up there."
Just yesterday a post on the website read, "A quick update to let you know we've heard from everyone and all safe and sound. "
Reaching the top, Kulish had attained his goal. Moments later, his life ended. The reason not clear.
The crowds on Everest have made news this past week. That was not the direct issue in Kulish's final ascent.
Just last week Donald Cash of Sandy, Utah also just completed the seventh summit. He then collapsed and died.
The government of Nepal issued a record number of climbing permits this season – 381 people were given permission to ascend the world's highest peak, which can create a logjam to reach the summit.
Kulish's family issued a statement.
"We are heartbroken at this news. Chris, who turned 62 in April, went up with a very small group in nearly ideal weather after the crowds of last week had cleared Everest. He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth. At that instant, he became a member of the "7Summit Club" having scaled the highest peak on each continent. An attorney in his 'day job,' he was an inveterate climber of peaks in Colorado, the West and the world over. He passed away doing what he loved, after returning to the next camp below the peak. He leaves his mother, Betty ("Timmie") Kulish, a younger sister, Claudia, and a younger brother, Mark."
