Climber Noel Hanna suffered "excessive exhaustion" before he died.

So says fellow climber Arjun Vajpai, who found the Co Down man in his tent.

The man who scaled one of the world's most dangerous mountains with Irish climber Noel Hanna has said the Co Down man had no oxygen backup and was suffering from “excessive exhaustion” before he died.

Climber Arjun Vajpai, who found Hanna dead in his tent, has spoken briefly of his last hours with the 56-year-old. He was one of a group climbers who had gone up west Nepal’s 8,091m-Mt Annapurna with Noel.

He said some 18 climbers in total had started expeditions up to what is one of the tallest and most treacherous mountains in the world at around the same time.

For more, the Irish Examiner’s coverage of this story.

The funeral of the much loved and world renowned climber - whose wife Lynne said “it was his time to go” when he went - is on Saturday.