Nobukazu Kuriki, a Japanese alpinist聽who attempted to be the first person to summit Everest after the Nepal earthquake last April, was forced to descend聽on Saturday, . Kuriki聽has聽attempted to climb the world鈥檚 tallest peak four previous times.聽He lost nine fingers to frostbite while waiting out a storm during his 2012 attempt. Though he wanted to聽prove that the mountain was still climbable,聽the 33-year-old mountaineer said he could not continue without assuming an unacceptable risk.
鈥淚 realized if I kept going, I wouldn鈥檛 be able to come back alive,鈥澛燢uriki told CNN. 鈥淚t took too much time to move in deep deep snow.鈥
As 国产吃瓜黑料聽reported last week, many experts had doubts from the beginning about Kuriki鈥檚 chances of reaching the summit.