Ten Nepali guides, including five foreigners, set out on Monday morning to climb the 5,630-meter-high Yalung Ri.
Five foreign and two Nepali climbers have died in an avalanche at the base camp of Yalung Ri Himal under the Rolwaling Himal range in Gaurishankar Rural Municipality-9. Four people are missing in the avalanche. Four people are injured.
The deceased include 3 French citizens, 1 Canadian and 1 Italian. Police have said that two Nepalis who were with them also died.
10 Nepali guides, including 5 foreigners, had set out on a 5,630-meter-high Yalung Ri trek on Monday morning. The avalanche buried all the climbers at around 8:30 in the morning.
Immediately after the avalanche, the injured had urged their friends in Na village who were not participating in the trek to come. But one of the injured climbers said that they could not be rescued in time. According to him, they had come to climb the 6,334-meter-high Dolma Khang Himal. Before that, they were scheduled to climb Yalung Ri.
The team reached Yalung Base Camp after staying in Na village. The injured guide said that the injured people who were injured in the avalanche did not come down to report it themselves after the rescue failed. ‘We cried and requested the local administration to rescue us, we received news that the helicopter would arrive only after about 4 hours,’ he told Kantipur, ‘We have not received any information about the condition of our friends yet, 4 friends have not been contacted yet.’
He said that the lack of timely rescue from the avalanche has resulted in human losses. Dolakha Police Chief DSP Gyan Kumar Mahato said that 7 people died in the avalanche. He said that the information that the climbing team was hit by the avalanche came only late. ‘As soon as the information came, we informed the Home Ministry through the district administration,’ he said, ‘The helicopter could not fly due to bad weather, rescue on foot was not possible.’
The snowfall had occurred along with the bad weather in the Rolwaling Valley for a few days. Locals had gone to bed after snowfall in Na village. The mountaineering team had set off for Yalung Ri after the weather improved slightly from Sunday. The sun had started shining in the Himalayan region since Sunday.
DSP Mahato said that the Nepali Army, Armed Forces and District Police have been mobilized from Lamabagar to search for those missing in the avalanche. 'Despite many rescue efforts throughout the day, it could not be done because the helicopter could not arrive,' he said. 'The helicopter reached Na village on Monday evening. We have also sent people for rescue by land.' He said that the rescue will begin on Tuesday morning.
