John Delaney (41) from Kilcock, Co Kildare is the first Irish man to die on the world's highest peak. He was scaling the final leg of the deadly mountain peak when he lost consciousness and collapsed.

Mr Delaney leaves behind a sister and brother and his three small children, one of whom he never got to meet. He has three-year-old son Casper and two-year old Alexander. His wife Orla gave birth to the couples third child, a baby girl last Wednesday.

“He was a generous, loving guy - the family came first for him," his brother Liam Hurley recalls. Mr Delaney and his wife were married five years ago. He had been mountaineering for several years and was attempting to conquer Everest after a failed bid five years ago, reports The Irish Times.


As it is too dangerous for the team to bring the body back to base, it will be buried naturally on the mountain peak.

John Delaney who was originally from Ballinakill, Co Laois, where his mother still lives, left for the expedition on April 9th.

According to Irish Times reads he was among a team of 18, including one US and six Russian climbers, eight Sherpas and two other guides. They left a camp at 8,300 metres last Friday evening in a bid to scale the final section of the notorious peak. After he got into difficulties, Sherpas helped Mr Delaney down the mountainside, but attempts to resuscitate him failed.

By a strange coincidence it was the same weekend that Mark Quinn (26) became the youngest Irish man to reach the Everest summit.