About 200 hikers await the rescue while Blizzard hits Mont Everest

Hundreds of hikers blocked by a blizzard near the eastern face of Mont Everest in Tibet have been guided towards safety by rescuers, according to Chinese media, while unusually heavy snow and precipitation hit the Himalayas.

About 350 hikers had reached a small canton, while contacts with the more than 200 hikers had been created, CCTV reported.

Visitors to the distant valley of Karma, who leads to the facial Kangshung face of Everest, were in the hundreds this week, taking advantage of an eight -day national holiday in China.

The Karma valley, explored for the first time by Western travelers a century ago, is a relatively virgin part of the Everest region. Unlike the arid north face of the peak, it has lush vegetation and intact alpine forests, powered by cast iron waters of the Kangshung glacier at the foot of the highest mountain in the world.

Sudden change in conditions: hiker

It was not clear if the hikers near the north face had been assigned or not.

The North Face, due to its easy access to Paved Road, regularly attracts a large number of tourists. October is a high season, when the sky is generally clear at the end of the Indian monsoon.

“It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk,” said Chen Geshuang, who was part of a trekking team of 18 people who went to Qudang.

“This year is not normal. The guide said he had never met such a time in October. And it happened too suddenly.”

Chen’s feast came down from the mountains on Sunday and was greeted by villagers after having endured a heartbreaking evening with strong snowfall combined with thunder and lightning. With tears in the eyes, Chen accepted their sweet tea offers and the promise of heat, she said.

“Back in the village, we took a meal and we are finally hot.”

Hundreds of local villagers and rescue teams were deployed to help eliminate access to snow from the region, where nearly 1,000 people had been trapped, according to a previous Jimu News report.

The remaining hikers will arrive in Qudang in stages under the direction and assistance of rescuers organized by the local government, reported video surveillance.

Death of the landslide in Nepal, India

The snowfall in the Karma valley, which is at an altitude with an average of 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), started on Friday evening and persisted throughout Saturday.

“It was raining and snowing every day, and we haven’t seen Everest at all,” said Eric Wen, who survived the test.

His 18 -year -old trekking group had decided on Saturday evening to come back from their fifth and last campsite, concerned about continuous snowfall.

“We only had a few tents. More than 10 of us were in the big tent and did not sleep hardly,” Wen told Reuters on Monday. “It was snowing too hard.”

Wen said her group had to clean the snow every 10 minutes.

“Otherwise, our tents would have collapsed,” he said.

Two men and a woman in the group were victims of hypothermia when the temperature slipped below the frost, even if they were sufficiently affected, Wen said.

But his shipping party appeared largely unscathed, including eight other shipping guides and several others who have maintained the yaks carrying their equipment and their kit.

Ticket sales and entry into the whole picturesque Everest area were suspended from the end of Saturday. In southern Tibet in Nepal, heavy rains have triggered landslides and sudden floods that blocked the roads, swept away and killed at least 47 people since Friday.

Thirty-five people died in separate landslides in the eastern district of Ilam bordering India. Nine were missing after being swept away by flood waters and three others were killed in love at first sight.