5 Climbers Feared Dead on World's 3rd-Highest Peak

Five climbers are missing on the world's third-highest mountain and feared dead, a mountaineering official said today. The five—two Hungarians, a South Korean, and two Nepalese guides—disappeared Monday on Mount Kanchenjunga, and bad weather was preventing a rescue helicopter from reaching their base camp. They were descending from the summit of the Himalayan peak when they were believed to have slipped or fallen at an altitude of about 25,900 feet, an official says. Kanchenjunga is 28,162 feet high.

The Hungarians have been identified as Zsolt Eross, 45, and Peter Kiss, 27, while the South Korean climber is Namsoo Park, 47. The Nepalese guides have been identified as Phu Dorjee, 24, and Bibash Gurung, 25. Eross has scaled 10 of the 14 highest peaks in the world and was the first from his country to scale Mount Everest. (More Mount Kanchenjunga stories.)