Nepal’s former Foreign Minister Shailendra Kumar Upadhayay has died while trying to scale Mount Everest in an attempt to become the oldest man to scale the world’s highest peak. Mr. Upadhyaya, 80, was ascending from the base camp situated at an altitude of 5,700 metres, when he suddenly fell ill and passed away yesterday.

The President of Nepal Mountaineering Association, Jimba Jangbo Sherpa said that he might have died of high altitude sickness.