Five daredevils attempting an extreme winter ascent of Mount Everest

A file picture of Mount Everest, taken in May last year. The mountain has not been scaled in winter since 1993. — AFP

Five mountaineers are on a daring mission to make a rare and extreme winter ascent of Mount Everest without oxygen for the first time in nearly three decades.

Krzysztof Wielicki of Poland first climbed the world’s tallest peak in the dead of winter on Feb 17,1980. Ang Rita Sherpa, known by the epithet of Snow Leopard, has climbed Everest 10 times without using supplemental oxygen, and one of his ascents was in the winter of 1987-1988.