Manaslu avalanche: Search resumes for missing climbers

 

Injured climbers were flown to safety by helicopter

A search operation has resumed in Nepal for climbers missing on Mount Manaslu, where an avalanche killed at least eight people on Sunday.

Poor weather had forced the suspension of earlier rescue efforts.
Correspondents say there is confusion about the numbers and nationalities of the dead and injured as multiple trekking agencies were involved.
Police said the group was camped near the summit when it was hit by a wall of snow in the early hours of Sunday.
A local police official has told the BBC that eight dead bodies and 10 injured people had been flown to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
He added that one injured person might have died in Kathmandu, but this had not yet been verified. Earlier reports had stated nine people had been killed.

Manaslu

• Eighth highest mountain in the world
• 8,156 metres high (26,759ft)
• Name means means Mountain of the Spirit
• Considered one of the most dangerous of the 14 summits over 8,000 metres
• At least 53 people are reported to have died during attempts to ascend Manaslu

Local police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar told the AFP news agency that helicopter rescue operations had now been stopped, and that sherpa guides were now searching for those missing.

Officials are trying to determine exactly how many people were in the climbing party.
Four of the dead and three of the missing were French, the vice-president of the French mountain guides' union Christian Trommsdorff told AFP.
They were three mountain guides from the Chamonix area in the Alps and four of their clients, who were part of two expeditions, he said.
Two of those rescued were also French nationals, according to Mr Trommsdorff.
The bodies of a Nepalese guide and a German mountaineer have been recovered. Spanish foreign ministry officials say one of the dead is a Spanish national.
'Flood of snow' One survivor, Glen Plake, is quoted as saying that "there were 25 tents at Camp 3 and all of them were destroyed; 12 tents at Camp 2 were banged up and moved around".
Mr Plake said he had lost a few front teeth and had an eye injury after being swept 300 metres down the mountain, according to Trey Cook, the editor-in-chief of EpicTV.com, which makes adventure sports films.
Deteriorating weather conditions meant it was impossible to continue air searches of the mountain on Sunday.

The climbers were caught at around 7,000 metres (22,960ft) as they were preparing to head toward the summit, which is 8,156m high.

"The avalanche hit Camp 3 of the Manaslu peak... resulting in a flood of snow," said Laxmi Dhakal, head of the Nepalese home ministry's disaster response division.
Hundreds of foreign climbers head every year for the Himalayas in Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.
Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world, is considered one of the most dangerous, with dozens of deaths in recent years.
The autumn climbing season began this month.