A survivor injured in a snowstorm is carried on a stretcher by Nepal Army personnel to an army helicopter in the Manang district along the Annapurna Circuit Trek on Friday. Nepal's prime minister has pledged to set up a weather warning system after a major Himalayan snowstorm killed about 30 people at the height of the trekking season, 17 of them tourists.
Reuters/Kathmandu
Search teams in Nepal used shovels and ice axes on Friday to dig through thick snow and rescue about 40 hikers trapped for days on a Himalayan pass after blizzards and avalanches killed at least 29 people in one of the world's worst mountain disasters.
The Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal said 37 people were brought down from Thorong La pass, which is 5,416 metres high. Austrians, French, Germans, Indians and Nepalis were among the nationalities represented.
Police said 48 people were rescued from different locations in the popular trekking region around Annapurna, the world's 10th highest peak, where some had sought shelter in a temple.
"Some of the foreign tourists were sitting in a temple for the last two days," said Surya Bahadur, a police officer from Dolpa, a district of glaciers and ravines.
"They had very little food to eat and they were sharing blankets. It is still snowing and our access is very limited."
Thorong La is the highest point of a three-week loop around the Annapurna peak. It is a wide, barren cleft between some of the world's highest mountains and offers scant shelter.
Authorities said they had little idea how many Nepalis were missing from remote villages near the Tibetan border, and blamed failures in weather forecasting and lax regulations that led to many trekkers being caught in the open when the blizzard hit.
Trekkers battling the blizzard were left helpless after porters fainted from the cold, one survivor said.
"When we were coming down I saw several porters struggling with loads on their backs," said Eitan, 31, an Israeli trekker who was descending from a teashop at a high altitude where he had taken refuge when the snowfall began.
"Some of them fainted right in front of me and we could not help. They were cold and there was no one to help," said Eitan, who declined to give his last name.
Eitan, who was speaking at an army hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, had severe frostbite on his fingers, which were swathed in bandages.
Heavy snowfall is unusual during the October hiking season, known for clear skies that draw people from all over the world to enjoy spectacular views of the peaks. The blizzard was triggered by a cyclone in India.
Casualties from the snowstorm included trekkers from Canada, India, Israel and Poland, as well as Nepali guides and herders.
Police in Kathmandu said 82 people are still unaccounted for, including porters and villagers trapped up high when the blizzard struck.
The incident was the second major mountain disaster in Nepal this year, after an avalanche killed 16 sherpa guides on Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, in April.
