Rescuers have all but given up on finding three climbers missing in a Nepal avalanche which killed at least nine people attempting to scale one of the world’s highest peaks, officials said Monday.
An air rescue mission was halted as hopes faded for two French mountaineers and a Canadian who disappeared as a wall of snow hit their tents near the peak of the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Manaslu in the early hours of Sunday.
“I feel sad to say that the possibility of survivors of those missing from avalanche has almost ended,” tourism ministry spokesman Balkrishna Ghimire told AFP, adding that a ground search would continue. “The avalanche occurred at the height of 7,300 meters, a very high altitude. Even if the missing mountaineers were only wounded, it will be hard for them to remain alive. “There is no human settlement and no other fellow people at such height who can take care of them and treat them.” If the deaths are confirmed, the toll of 12 victims would make it the deadliest avalanche on the Himalayas since 2005 when a powder-snow avalanche ploughed into a French expedition’s base camp on Kang Guru, killing 18 people. Survivors said that they were woken by the sound of the wall of snow tearing down the mountain as they described a scene reminiscent of a “war zone”. “I woke up to a huge roar… Then the avalanche came down and crushed our tents. We were swept 100 metres down with our tents — others were carried 300 metres,” Andreas Reiter said from his hospital bed in Kathmandu where he is being treated for spinal injuries. “I was not buried under the avalanche, I was carried with it. It was very high and so many tents were falling down. But I couldn’t move and couldn’t help people who were screaming for help and dying,” the 26-year-old German told AFP.