British climber Daniel Paul Paterson, 40, and his Sherpa guide Pas Tenji Sherpa, 23, are “confirmed to be missing” after a large chunk of ice fell on them and swept them off the trail in the “Death Zone” area of Mount Everest, the Everest Chronicle reports in a story whose wording for some reason sounds just a little bit reminiscent of that “hard landing” in northeastern Iran a few days ago.
The Chronicle kind of breaks the euphemistic “missing” kayfabe a little bit further down in a paragraph that says, emphasis ours, “The number of fatalities could rise as officials and agencies work to determine the exact count. They will wait until this evening for climbers to descend. The full number of those unaccounted for won’t be known until everyone reaches the lower camp.”
Now MAYBE the Chronicle has a lengthy record of reportage in which a solid minority of “missing” ended up later making it down the mountain and back home more or less intact, like they simply got separated from their expedition tour groups or whatever. Buuuuuut… You know. It’s kind of dangerous up there and if a large chunk of ice falls on someone and sweeps them over the edge of a precipice in a place the Chronicle themselves already call the “Death Zone.” If anything they’re most likely going to stay “missing” for however long it takes add “presumed dead” to that status.