NEW DELHI: Ten people have died after an avalanche hit mountaineers in the Indian Himalayas, police said on Wednesday (October 5th), and 18 other expedition members are still missing.
Several dozen climbing trainees were caught in Tuesday morning’s snowslide near the summit of Mount Draupadi ka Danda-II in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
The Indian Air Force and the local relief agency were helping with the rescue efforts before heavy snowfall and rain forced them to abandon the search overnight.
“Rescue teams have recovered 10 bodies,” Uttarakhand state police said on Twitter after operations resumed in the morning.
Fourteen people have so far been rescued from the site of the avalanche, around 4,900 meters (16,000ft) above sea level, and police said five people were being treated at a district hospital in Uttarkashi.
Police footage showed several rescued climbers arriving in the town and walking unaided as they were escorted by officers.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami confirmed on Twitter that accomplished mountaineer Savita Kanswal, who summitted Everest earlier this year, was among the dead.
Kanswal was an expedition instructor and had been celebrated by the climbing community for having scaled the world’s highest peak and nearby Makalu in just 16 days – a women’s record.
Dhami said the government would provide immediate financial assistance to those injured in the avalanche as well as the families of the victims.
National disaster management agency spokesman Ridhim Aggarwal told AFP that the climbers were stuck in a crevasse after the avalanche.
The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering said the expedition included 34 of its trainees, seven instructors and a nursing assistant.
Two air force helicopters have been sent to the area to help with the search, senior disaster management official Devendra Singh Patwal told AFP.
FATAL ACCIDENTS
Fatal climbing accidents are common in the dangerous terrain of the Himalayas, home to Everest and many of the world’s tallest peaks.
In August, the body of a mountaineer was found two months after falling into a crevasse while crossing a glacier in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh.
And last week the body of famed American ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson was found on the slopes of Manaslu Peak in Nepal after she disappeared while descending the world’s eighth highest mountain.
On the day of Nelson’s accident, an avalanche slammed into the 8,163m mountain, killing Nepalese climber Anup Rai and injuring a dozen others who were later rescued.
Although no substantial research has been done on the impacts of climate change on mountaineering risk in the Himalayas, mountaineers have reported widening crevasses, running water on previously snow-capped slopes, and the formation growing number of glacial lakes.