Brit dies after ‘slipping on ice’ trying to descend Mount Kenya

A British woman and her guide have died after falling while attempting to descend Mount Kenya.

60-year-old London resident, Shilpa Shah, had reportedly hiked to Point Lenana, the mountain's third highest peak, and were making their return journey when she slipped on ice.

According to The Sun, Shah ended up 'slipping on ice' and her guide Kelvin Muriuki Mwithi also died after attempting to grab her before they both fell from a cliff edge.

They also reported that the 60-year-old had been part of an eight-woman group who had made the trek to the Point Lenana.

The two people fell several hundred metres down a stretch between Point Lenana and a shelter known as the Austrian Hut, which is the second highest outpost on Africa's second highest mountain after Mount Kilimanjaro.

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Weather conditions meant that it took three attempts for rescuers to recover the bodies of Shah and her guide from Mount Kenya, and her body has since been flown to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Kenya and are in contact with local authorities."

Friends and colleagues of Mwithi have paid tribute to the guide who died trying to save Shah's life.

A fund has been set up to help the guide's wife and child, and the man who set it up wrote a tribute to Kevin.

Robert Kamura wrote: "My friend has rested.

"Our hearts are broken. May his soul transition to the afterlife peacefully. He always wore a smile and was an incredibly kind and positive human."

Weather conditions can make mountain climbing incredibly dangerous and render conditions slippery and difficult to traverse.

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Even experienced climbers can be placed in mortal danger as mountain climbing itself is a dangerous activity where risk cannot be entirely eliminated.

Earlier this year, a man fell to his death while climbing a mountain in Scotland with his two sons, with a 66-year-old man falling 130 feet.

A Northern Irish climber also died in Nepal in April after climbing one of the world's most dangerous mountains, with the 56-year-old man dying on the descent from Annapurna.

He had been carried down the mountain and flown to Kathmandu, though his friends believed he had died at base camp after returning from the mountain's summit.

Experienced climber Noel Hanna had climbed Everest 10 times and reached the summit of the highest mountains on all seven continents before he died on the descent from one of the world's most dangerous mountains.