Warwick chiropractor Timothy Warren’s attempt to summit Mount Everest has ended in failure due to a throat infection, and the climber is on his way back down the mountain.

Warren started his summit attempt yesterday at 4:30 a.m. Himalayan time, but within an hour of the start, he knew that he could not safely reach the summit.

“The dry, freezing air combined with heavy panting constricted my trachea, throat and lungs like a vice. I sat down between crevasses, radioed Tuck at BC and had a good cry,” he wrote by e-mail. Warren was referring to Mark Tucker, at base camp, who reached the top of Everest in 1989.

Warren left for Nepal on March 15, flying across the world and landing in Katmandu, where he spent several days before taking a helicopter closer to Everest.

On April 2, he reached base camp, where he had a space for his tent carved out of the glacier.

He spent the past month and a half taking day hikes higher up the mountain, and returning to base camp for the night. These acclimatization hikes were intended to allow his body to slowly get used to climbing at high altitudes.

But during these hikes, Warren picked up the violent cough that would eventually be his undoing. He went to lower altitudes with higher oxygen levels to try to let his body heal, but the cough persisted. Once he returned to base camp at 17,500 feet, he and his Sherpa guide, Phinjo, decided to go ahead with the summit attempt as planned. But they quickly knew that they would never make the 29,035-foot summit, where humans can survive only briefly in good health.

“It started three days ago and seemed to improve, but this morning when in subfreezing air at 5 a.m., as Phinjo and I climbed the Khumbu icefall, we both knew it was over,” Warren said.

“Ironically, at home I am rarely ill,” Warren wrote.

“If I pushed a little further, I would have put others at risk who may have had to assist me and I wasn’t about to do that — especially in light of the fact that two additional climbers died several days ago,” he wrote.

Warren’s plans for returning home are not yet known, nor is it clear whether he will try again next year. But he said that he is happy he tried to summit regardless.

“I will say that I have learned great lessons on this Everest journey, in addition to being very proud of what I did accomplish by stepping up to the plate. I went in search of a great perhaps,” he wrote.

dbarbari@projo.com