A South African woman died after developing altitude sickness while attempting to climb Mount Everest to prove that “vegans can do anything.”
Maria Strydom was a 34-year-old finance professor at Monash University in Melbourne. A couple of weeks before the accident, Strydom explained how she and her husband wanted to dispel the assumption that vegans were “weak” or “malnourished” by taking on the dangerous climb, the Daily Mail reports.
“It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak,” Strydom said in an interview at Monash Business School two months ago. “By climbing the seven summits we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more.”
Strydom, who described herself as a seasoned climber, said she felt well-prepared for the climb, despite the risks.
She died from lack of oxygen on Saturday. A day earlier, she had returned to Camp 4, the last camp before the mountain’s summit, after she began to feel unwell.
