Summit fever: Everest's budget climbing boom puts Indians most at risk

Nine people have died on the Nepalese side of the mountain so far this year, the deadliest climbing season on the peak since 2015

Earlier this month Dipankar Ghosh, a 52-year-old Indian photographer, scaled the world's fifth-highest peak, the snow-capped Mount Makalu.

He didn't make it back down alive. After being separated from the rest of his team in bad weather, he collapsed and died along with Narayan Singh, an officer in the Indian army, according to his tour operator.

"Dipankar personified mountains," said his brother, Goutam, sitting by the coffin after it returned to the family's home in Kolkata, the state capital of India's West Bengal, on Wednesday.

"There was nothing else that he loved more." Ghosh's death comes amid a spike in similar incidents since