Darjeeling: She climbed mountains for most of her life and survived Everest at its most ruthless, but it was a fall at home that in the end killed Charlotte Fox.

The American, a survivor of the disaster-struck 1996 Everest expedition that was chronicled in the book, Into Thin Air, was 61.

"Oh, what a tragedy!" Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who had rushed to rescue Fox and her teammates 22 years ago, said in New Delhi on Friday.

Recollecting the events of May 10, 1996, Jamling said: "I was with an IMAX team and we were filming our climb of Everest. We were in Camp III but that day we decided not to go further up as there were more than 60 climbers trying to reach the camp."

Jamling's team had decided to step down to Camp II, which is normally pitched at 21,000. Camp III and IV are set at an altitude of 24,000 and 26,000 feet, respectively. The final push to the 29,029-feet peak is made from Camp IV.

The experienced climber could sense that things were not right on the Everest.

"The path was crowded and the climbers were moving too slowly. They seemed inexperienced, too. We could see from our camp that they were trying to scale the peak even at 3pm," said Jamling. "It is a thumb rule of Everest that you don't try to scale the peak after 1pm. Else, it is a recipe for disaster."

The weather changes every hour on the Everest and later that evening Jamling's team received a radio message about a disaster.

"Sherpas began rescue operations the same night. The next morning we all climbed to Camps III and IV. We took oxygen, food, tents. We tried hard to rescue as many as possible but I think nine people lost their lives making it the worst Everest tragedy till then," Jamling said.

Two veteran climbers, Robert Hall, a New Zealander, and Scott Fisher, an American, died in the tragedy. A member of a Taiwanese expedition team and three members of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police had also died.

Charlotte, then 38, was with Fisher's team and braved the trying conditions at an altitude of over 26,000 feet.

She died after a fall from the steps at her home.

"I guess it's destiny. Look at what happened to Micheal Schumacher. The best driver met with an accident while skiing," said Jamling, who remembers Charlotte as a "nice lady".