All Mountaineers Currently Out of Danger Following Days Caught in Powerful Blizzard

Rescue teams have escorted all of the last hikers near the east-facing slopes of Mount Everest in Tibet to safety, along with numerous of regional escorts and animal tenders, local government reported. This wraps up one of the biggest rescue and recovery missions ever conducted in the zone.

Large-Scale Evacuation Operation Completed

Numerous of hikers were left stranded in heavy snow over the weekend in the secluded Karma valley, after an unusually powerful snowstorm unleashed heavy snowfall across the area.

Snow kept coming down all day Saturday in the valley, which rests at an mean altitude of 4,200 meters (13,800 feet). By Sunday, emergency teams had guided approximately 350 hikers to a safe zone.

Initial updates had suggested that the remaining roughly 200 individuals were projected to reach their destination by Tuesday.

In total, 580 hikers, coupled with more than 300 guides, yak herders, and other crew members were brought out, according to official announcements released on Tuesday night.

Survivors Describe Harsh Situations

One Chinese trekker shared how their group had been “too anxious to sleep” on Saturday, as snow rapidly accumulated around their tents, obliging them to remove it every 90 minutes. They decided to go down on Sunday as the weather deteriorated.

“On the way, we came across our guide’s father, who had ventured for him. That’s when we realized the snow was intense in the valley, too; local residents, incapable to contact their children on the mountain, were extremely worried.”

Climbing Plans Disrupted

The blizzard also hindered the plans of mountaineers escorted by a American expedition outfit to summit Cho Oyu, an 8,188-meter (26,864-foot) peak on the frontier between China and Nepal.

Visitor Increase in the Area

Karma valley was first discovered by western travelers a century ago. In modern times, with the development of the Everest region in Tibet as a significant visitor destination, the area has drawn an rising number of tourists. More than 540,000 tourists visited the Everest region last year, marking a all-time high.

Area Still Closed

The Everest region is still for the time being inaccessible to the public, covering the Karma and Rongshar valleys, as well as Cho Oyu.

Broader Effect

The heavy snowfall over the weekend also affected numerous of trekkers in other parts of the western regions of China, for example Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu. Tragically, at least one person succumbed, due to a combination of low body temperature and altitude sickness.

Atypical Conditions

October is typically a busy season for the area, with typically clear and mild weather, but one trekker of an 18-person trekking group that got back to Qudang commented that the weather this year was “atypical.”