Shriya Shah-Klorfine was a Nepal-born Canadian woman who died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest in 2012.
Everest experience
Shah-Klorfine had booked a climb with Utmost Adventure Trekking, which was a new guiding company. Neither she nor the guide firm had much climbing experience. The leader of the guide firm said he had asked her not to try to summit on that day, and previously warned her she was a below-average climber. However, another guide firm said she was not given enough bottled oxygen. One issue noted by the guide firm and other climbers that day was long waiting times on the mountain, caused by slow passage through certain bottlenecks on the climbing route. The 2012 season was noted as the worst since 1996, with about 11 deaths for the season. The Himalayan Database records that she died on May 19, 2012, on the south side of Mount Everest at 8400 meters altitude. Further fatalities that season include two on the north and eight on the south side including Shah-Klorfine, with four other deaths on the same day as Shah-Klorfine. She is said to have died 250 meters from Camp 4. The day after she died, climber Leanne Shuttleworth came across her body. Shuttleworth and her father with whom she was climbing had to go around Shah-Klorfine's body, as she was still clipped to the climbing line. Her body was on the mountain for about ten days before it was carried back down. The body was retrieved from over 8000 meters altitude and then taken off the mountain by helicopter. On July 8, 2012, a memorial service was ministered for her at a church inToronto, Canada. In a 2012 documentary, Bob McKeown travels to Nepal and pieces together what happened, including video of Shah-Klorfine's final hours on Everest.
Early life
Shah-Klorfine was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, according to CityNews. At the age of nine, Shah-Klorfine had taken a helicopter tour of Mount Everest with her father. She grew up in Mumbai, India, which she left to work on cruise ships. She attended Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Adulthood
She was married to Bruce Klorfine, who was from Toronto, Canada. She met her husband while working on a cruise ship, and they settled in Canada. Her husband was a jazz and event piano player. They were together for about a decade before she died on Everest. Shah-Klorfine was also a businesswoman and a candidate in a general election in Mississauga East—Cooksville. The business she started was "SOS Splash of Style Inc." She was 33 years old when she died on Everest.
Legacy
Shah-Klorfine has been noted as a case of the pros and cons of risk taking. The Vancouver Sun noted that dangerous adventures can offer achievement but that danger can also result in death. Another analysis noted the cruel dangers of mountain climbing and questioned the common sense of going with an inexperienced guiding firm. Another Canadian Everest summiter noted the dangers of climbing Mount Everest.
