15 Nepali Workers Killed in Avalanche

At least 15 Nepali workers have been killed in an avalanche while preparing a mountain camp for foreign climbers in central Nepal.

Tul Singh Gurung, president of the Nepal National Mountain Guides Association, told Reuters on Friday (October 2).

Gurung said the avalanche struck early Sunday morning at the base camp of Himlung Himal, a 7,126-meter (23,335-foot) peak near the Chinese border. Nepali workers were preparing tents and fixing ropes at the site ahead of a scheduled climbing expedition.

Gurung said the bodies recovered on Friday were expected to be flown by helicopter to Kathmandu.

He added that there was little hope of finding the remaining missing worker alive, and that the search and rescue operation was being gradually scaled down. No foreign climbers had reached the site when the avalanche occurred.

Meanwhile, an 11-member rescue team, including experienced mountain guides, searched through more than four meters (14 feet) of snow covering the base camp tents.

Two climbing guides were recovered on Sunday, followed by two kitchen staff on Monday and three more bodies on Tuesday.

Nepal’s deadliest mountaineering disaster in recent years occurred in 2014, when an avalanche on Mount Everest killed 16 people. In 2015, an earthquake on Everest killed 18 people.