The controversy continues over the death of climber David Sharpe on Everest.

An expert in mountain medicine says that the stricken Brit would have stood a chance of survival if some of the many climbers who passed him (see previous story on grough) had stopped and helped.

Dr Jose Ramon Morendeira, an experienced climber as well as director of mountain-medicine research at Zaragoza University in northern Spain, is reported on mounteverest.net as saying he believes Sharpe might have survived if treated with standard drugs carried by most expeditions and given oxygen.

Morendeira is also scathing about the current ethos of commercially lead groups on the world’s highest peak and says he turned down the chance of going to the Himalaya as an expedition doctor because the place would depress him now, because money and success are all that count.

For a full account of the Basque mountaineer’s views on the rights and wrongs of leaving stricken climbers, check out the mounteverest.net website.