Collapsed Canadian Climber Rescued Near Mt. Everest Summit

A Canadian climber who collapsed near the summit of Mt. Everest was carried off the mountain in a dramatic rescue effort Thursday.

John McIsaac, 39, of Canmore, Alberta, was reported resting at the expedition base camp, suffering from pneumonia and pulmonary edema, a potentially fatal altitude sickness in which the lungs fill with fluid. He was being monitored by three doctors, who were to decide this morning whether to evacuate him to Nepal’s capital, Katmandu.

McIsaac, seeking to become the first Canadian to ascend Everest without bottled oxygen, climbed to within 1,150 feet of the summit Wednesday when he was forced back by exhaustion. Within hours, he began showing signs of pulmonary edema. Unable to walk, McIsaac was carried down the world’s highest mountain Thursday in a heavy vinyl Gamov bag, which acts as a portable compression chamber, according to Maggie Calloway, an expedition spokeswoman in Vancouver who spoke to the climbing party by cellular phone.

McIsaac was reportedly suffering from exhaustion and frostbitten fingers when he gave up his 16-hour assault on the summit. Earlier, another climber on the Canadian expedition, Denis Brown, also abandoned his summit attempt.

The Canadians were using the northern, or Tibetan, route up the 29,028-foot mountain, which straddles the border of Tibet and Nepal.