Kathmandu, May 6 -- The spring climbing season in Nepal is only halfway through, but the mountains have already claimed four lives. Among them is American adventurer Alexander Pancoe, a man whose life was shaped by survival, ambition, and an unrelenting desire to give back.

Pancoe, 39, died on Sunday evening at Camp II on Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, standing at 8,485 metres. He had just returned from an acclimatisation rotation to Camp III and was resting when his life came to a sudden end.

"He had completed the rotation and was taking a break at Camp II. That's when he died," said Himal Gautam, director at the Department of Tourism, the government agency that oversees mountaineering activities.

His body is expecte...