A 57-year-old German climber, Wolfgang Waschiczek, died on Monday, October 26, 2026, after falling approximately 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) on Ama Dablam mountain in Nepal. The fall occurred one day after Waschiczek successfully reached the 6,812-meter (22,349-foot) summit.
Waschiczek had been resting at Camp 3, located at an altitude of about 6,200 meters, following his Sunday ascent. According to Gokul Thapa, head of the trekking company Real Himalaya, Waschiczek's personal guide, Sonam Lama, left the tent for a few minutes on Monday morning to return borrowed equipment. When the guide returned, the climber was missing from the tent.
A search team spotted Waschiczek's body at approximately 8:00 a.m. on Monday near Camp 2, at an altitude of about 4,600 meters. A helicopter retrieved the body that afternoon and transported it to Lukla before transferring it to Kathmandu. A postmortem examination is scheduled at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital before the body is released to the family via the embassy.
This death marks the first fatality on Ama Dablam in 2026. The mountain, located in Nepal's Khumbu region near Mount Everest, is known for its steep faces and technical difficulty. The incident follows the deaths of two Japanese climbers on a different peak in western Nepal last week, and the deaths of two climbers from France and South Korea on Ama Dablam in October 2023.
More than 300 mountaineers have received permits to attempt Ama Dablam during the current autumn climbing season, which runs from September to November. Earlier this year, 10 climbers died on a mountain in Pakistan. In May, two Indian climbers died on Mount Everest while an American climber died on Mount Makalu.
The next steps include the completion of the postmortem in Kathmandu and the subsequent release of the body. The autumn climbing season will continue through November.