The mountaineering community has been mourning the untimely demise of Kenyan climber Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui who died while attempting to scale the formidable Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen.
Nepali tourism officials confirmed the tragic news, reporting that Kirui and his Nepali guide Nawang Sherpa went missing on May 23, 2024, during their daring ascent of the world’s highest peak. As news of Kirui’s fate spread, social media platforms have become inundated with posts claiming to depict the retrieval of his body by a helicopter. However, these claims have been swiftly debunked as the video in question is found to be a year old and unrelated to the Kenyan climber’s expedition.
On May 26, 2024, a post on X (formerly Twitter) circulated the misleading footage, accompanied by the caption, “Body of Kenyan Climber Cheruiyot Kirui on Mount Everest. RIP CHAMP.” This post garnered significant attention, with over 600 shares, and similar claims were echoed on Facebook and in WhatsApp groups. However, fact-checkers swiftly intervened, utilizing the InVID-WeVerify verification plugin and conducting reverse image searches on multiple keyframes from the video. Their investigation revealed that the same clip had been published on an Instagram account called “mountain.trekking” on May 24, 2023—nearly a year before Kirui’s tragic fate.
The caption on the original post read, “Long line Rescue in Everest.” High-altitude photographer Suman Gurung, credited for the video, confirmed to AFP Fact Check that he captured the footage in 2023 and it featured a Chinese climber. Amidst the flurry of false claims, Kirui’s expedition company Seven Summit Treks confirms that they have located his body but have not yet retrieved it. The repatriation process and the challenges of retrieving bodies from the treacherous slopes of Everest, where more than 200 climbers’ remains litter the route, pose significant obstacles for Kirui’s family.
Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui was an avid mountaineer who documented his hiking expeditions on his Instagram page. As the mountaineering community mourns his loss, efforts are underway to ensure a fitting burial for Kirui, who had already scaled peaks around the world, including the iconic Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,895 meters.
