All previous reports suggested that the avalanche on Himlung last Sunday killed everyone in base camp. Fourteen kitchen staff and two guides did, in fact, perish beneath four meters of snow. However, Everest Chronicle now notes that 11 people whose tents were pitched away from the slide path survived. Witnesses explained that the avalanche didn’t sweep away tents or men, but buried them deeply in their tents.
Yesterday, the Nepal National Mountain Guides Association sent a new team to retrieve the remaining bodies. The recovery workers have had to dig tunnels to find them.
The first searchers, led by Mingma G, found four bodies. By then, it was obvious that they would find no survivors among the 16 missing. Mingma G called off the search, alleging the bodies were buried too deeply to be shoveled out. He opted to wait until the snow had melted enough to access the remains.
But the recovery effort resumed at the request of some relatives of the deceased staff and of Himalayan Holidays Trek & Expeditions, the outfitter for whom most of the victims worked.
Tunnels and a climbing team
Two of the previous rescuers, Pasang Kaji Sherpa and Bikram Karki, are leading the current team, which includes about 10 additional support personnel. This larger workforce has been able to dig tunnels under the snow and retrieve three more bodies yesterday and eight more today. With the four bodies that the first searchers uncovered, that’s 15 in all. As night fell on Nepal, only one person remains missing.
Himlung was expected to receive several climbing teams this season. After the tragedy, the list of permits issued by Nepal’s Department of Tourism shows one team still going to Himlung, with six foreign members.
