Avalanche tragedy in Nepal: 7 climbers killed, several missing in Himalayas Himalayas as extreme weather strikes again

(FILES) Tents of mountaineers are pictured at Everest base camp in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district on April 18, 2024 on the tenth anniversary of an avalance which killed 16 Nepali guides.

At least seven people, including several foreign nationals, were killed and four others injured on Monday after an avalanche struck the base camp of Nepal’s Yalung Ri peak, officials said. Search and rescue teams continue to look for at least four people who remain missing.

The 5,630-metre-high Yalung Ri, located in the Rolwaling Valley of Dolakha district in Bagmati province, was hit by the avalanche as climbers prepared for their ascent. According to The Kathmandu Post, the massive wall of snow and debris swept through the camp without warning, leaving little time for those on site to react.

District Police Office Deputy Superintendent Gyan Kumar Mahato confirmed that the dead include three American climbers, one Canadian, one Italian, and two Nepali nationals. Rescue efforts were ongoing late into Monday evening as authorities attempted to reach the missing mountaineers despite challenging terrain and weather conditions.

Italian climbers missing on separate expedition

In a separate incident, two Italian climbers have gone missing while attempting to scale Panbari, a remote 6,887-metre peak in western Nepal. The pair, identified as Stefano Farronato and Alessandro Caputo, were part of a three-member team that had been trapped by heavy snowfall following Cyclone Montha’s passage through the Himalayas.

“The two were stuck in camp one because of heavy snowfall and have been out of contact since Saturday,” said Himal Gautam, an official with Nepal’s Department of Tourism. “The team leader, who was at the base camp, has been rescued by helicopter and is safe.”

Mass rescues amid extreme weather

Sagar Pandey, president of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal, said that more than a thousand trekkers and tourists have been rescued across Nepal since heavy snow began last Tuesday. “It was challenging because helicopter operations were difficult due to low visibility. Weather has improved now,” Pandey told reporters.

In Mustang district, rescuers from the Nepal Army reportedly spent three days trekking and digging through thick snow to reach a group of stranded trekkers, including three British nationals and 15 locals, who were eventually brought to safety.

Avalanches: A growing threat in the Himalayas

Home to eight of the world’s ten highest peaks, including Mount Everest, Nepal attracts hundreds of climbers and trekkers every year. But avalanches remain one of the deadliest hazards on its slopes.

Between 1950 and 2021, around 1,042 mountaineers lost their lives while climbing in Nepal, with 405 of those deaths occurring in just the last two decades, according to a 2022 joint report by The Vibes and the Himalayan Database. The report also found that nearly one-third of all fatalities were caused by avalanches.

Across the Himalayas, at least 564 climbers have died in avalanches over the past 50 years, particularly on peaks above 4,500 metres. On major summits higher than 6,000 metres, roughly one in every three mountaineering deaths is avalanche-related.

Experts say the risk is especially high in central Nepal’s Rolwaling, Langtang, and Jugal regions, where unpredictable weather patterns, unstable snowpacks, and congested base camps heighten the danger.

This week’s twin tragedies, on Yalung Ri and Panbari, underscore the persistent and growing threat that extreme weather poses to climbers in the Himalayas, as warming temperatures and erratic snowfall make avalanche forecasting increasingly unreliable.