Everest Climber Lambert Dead At 83

Mountaineer Raymond Lambert, whose climbs up Everest in 1952 led the way for Edmund Hillary to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain a year later, has died at age 83.

Lambert died Monday in a hospital in Geneva from heart and lung failure, his family said Tuesday.

He was part of two major Swiss expeditions to the Himalayas in the spring and autumn of 1952.

On the historic spring trip, Lambert and Tenzing Norgay climbed 28,200 feet up Everest, coming within 300 yards of the summit. The area later was nicknamed “the Swiss ridge.”

That climb was one of the first great Everest expeditions after Nepal opened up to the outside world in 1950.