Marisa Eve Girawong, a Thai-American physician at the Mt. Everest base camp was killed under an avalanche of ice and rock caused by Saturday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Nepal.
Born in Thailand, Girawong, 29, lived in the US state of New Jersey and had been working at the base camp for a year prior to the disastrous quake, the rising death toll of which has increased over 3,000 this morning.
“Our hearts are broken. It is with deep sorrow and profound grief that we can confirm the loss of our Everest/Lhotse base camp doctor, Marisa Eve Girawong,” Madison Mountaineering wrote on Facebook yesterday.
Girawong died at the expedition’s 17,500-foot elevation base camp. All 15 members of the climbing team made it safely to the second camp, where they were awaiting helicopter evacuation, according to Bangkok Post.
Comments from Thailand’s social media community expressed mourning. Girawong was reprotedly planning to be the first Thai woman to summit Mt. Everest.
Photos: Eve Girawong
