The nine climbers of an expedition to the south Korean in the massif of Gurja, Nepal, lost his life during a violent snow storm that has devastated their camp, one of the worst tragedies in mountaineering in the Himalayas in recent years.
The bodies of eight people – four South Koreans and four guides from nepal were spotted Saturday among the debris of their camp by a rescue team, but the weather conditions cold and unstable slow down the research, said the spokesman of the police Sailesh Thapa.
A fifth mountaineer of south korea, initially missing because it had to reach behind the main team, has finally been located dead at the base camp that has been ravaged by the storm, bringing the death toll to nine, according to the authorities.
“A mountain expedition of five South Korean and four foreign nationals had been swept away by the strong winds at their base camp during the ascent of the mont Gurja, they fell from a cliff and died”, said a press release of the ministry and south Korean foreign Affairs.
The helicopter pilot Siddartha Gurung, one of the first to reach the base camp after the storm, described to AFP one scene of chaos.
“Everything has been blown, the tents were gone. The victims were scattered all over the site,” explained the pilot who managed to land a little above the camp, without being able to approach on foot.
“The weather is too cold and too unstable to continue the research,” he added.
According to the nepalese ministry of tourism, a second helicopter was sent Saturday afternoon on the site. Due to the climatic conditions, “we are not sure that it will be able to land”, has, however, pointed out the spokesman for the ministry Mira Acharya.
