Rescuers have guided all remaining trekkers near the east face of Mount Everest in Tibet to safety, authorities confirmed, ending one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in the region. Hundreds of hikers, local guides and yak herders were stranded in deep snow in the isolated Karma valley after an unusually powerful blizzard dumped heavy snowfall over the weekend.
The valley, which lies at an average altitude of 4,200 metres, saw snow falling throughout Saturday. By Sunday, rescuers had guided about 350 hikers to safety, with the remaining 200 or so reaching safety by Tuesday, according to reports. A total of 580 trekkers and more than 300 guides, yak herders and other support staff were evacuated, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
One Chinese trekker described being “too scared to sleep” on Saturday as snow quickly piled up around their tents, forcing them to clear it every 90 minutes. The group decided to descend on Sunday as the weather worsened. “On the way, we met our guide’s father, who had come looking for him. That’s when we learned the snow was heavy in the valley, too; villagers, unable to contact their children on the mountain, were extremely worried,” the trekker said.
The snowstorm also thwarted plans by climbers from US-based Madison Mountaineering to summit Cho Oyu, an 8,188-metre peak on China’s border with Nepal. The Everest region, including the Karma and Rongshar valleys and Cho Oyu, remains temporarily closed to the public, Xinhua reported.
The heavy snowfall affected hundreds of hikers in other parts of western China, including Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu, with at least one death attributed to hypothermia and acute mountain sickness. October is usually a peak season with clear, mild weather, but Chen Geshuang, a member of a trekking group that made it back to Qudang, described this year’s weather as “not normal”.
