Alabama doctor among 3 people killed on Mount Everest

An Alabama doctor and three other men died over the weekend trying to climb Mount Everest.

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Roland Yearwood, 50, from Georgiana, Ala., was making his second attempt to climb the Earth's highest peak after he narrowly escaped an earthquake-triggered avalanche in 2015 that killed 19 people on the mountain and nearly 9,000 people in Nepal and prompted local officials to cancel the remainder of the climbing season.

Yearwood was a constant thrill-seeker with a long history of diving, mountain-climbing and flying. He was in the process of climbing the tallest summits on the seven continents, according to his profile on the Georgiana Medical Center website. In 2015, after he survived the earthquake on Everest, his wife said that nothing could faze him.

"He is always calm," Amrita Yearwood told AL.com at the time. "He does a lot of sports. He is adventurous. He doesn't get freaked out."

Murari Sharma of the Everest Parivar Expedition agency, based in Katmandu, Nepal’s capital, said the details of Yearwood's death remained uncertain Sunday. It was a busy day on Everest as intense winds eased up enough for dozens of people to try and reach the famed summit. About 70 people made it, according to the Himalayan Times.

“The weather has been pretty bad, especially with high winds, but there were some little keyholes which climbers have been lucky to take advantage of,” Tendi Sherpa, a longtime guide, told The Washington Post. “Several teams got lucky, but there are also many climbers who had to turn around half way to the summit due to high winds.”

A second man, Vladimir Strba of Slovakia, died Sunday after suffering from severe altitude sickness, according to the Times. A third climber, Francesco Enrico Marchetti of Australia, also died from altitude sickness while descending the mountain, the Times said.

The body of a fourth climber, Ravi Kumar, from India, was found Monday after he fell sick on his way down from the summit on Saturday and did not make it to the nearest camp, Thupden Sherpa of Arun Treks and Expedition, told the Associated Press. Sherpa said it was impossible to retrieve the body. Kumar's Nepalese Sherpa guide also fell sick and suffered from frostbite, but he was able to drag himself to the last camp.