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All surviving trekkers have either been rescued from the Himalayan mountains or are safe after this week’s unseasonal storms, Nepalese officials have said, but at least 40 people, including several Britons, remain unaccounted for.
At least 40 people were killed in the series of snowstorms and avalanches that struck the Annapurna region this week, trapping hundreds of trekkers at altitudes of more than 5,000m (16,500ft) on Tuesday.
It is feared that the death toll in one of Nepal’s worst mountaineering disasters could be closer to 35 foreigners and 30 Nepalese when all bodies are recovered.
The government administrator Yama Bahadur Chokhyal said that although more than 200 people had been rescued, dozens more were still sheltering in isolated mountain huts. Good weather was helping the ongoing rescue effort.
Binay Acharya, of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal, said: “We understand that all remaining trekkers in the region are safe. We have not received any further calls for rescue or for information about stranded people.”
Helicopters operating as high as 5,800m were used to winch survivors from the mountains and transport them to nearby villages and towns. Many have severe frostbite and will need to have limbs amputated.
Niranjan Shrestha, the army official in charge of the operation, said soldiers would be digging up snow to ensure every body was found.
Engineer Peter Roddis, thought to be from Brighton, had not been heard from since Wednesday, his girlfriend Lisa Hallet told the Times. “He said he was planning to head out that day or on Thursday, but I have not heard from him since,” she said.
Other British trekkers who remain unaccounted for include Jade House, 24, from Liphook, Hampshire, and her boyfriend, Oliver de Paolis, from London, and Katie Francis and Duncan Hedges, from Malvern, Worcestershire.
Survivors of the blizzards that struck the Annapurna trekking route said they were caught off-guard when the weather suddenly deteriorated.
Gombu Sherpa, who was guiding a group of Germans, said the skies had been clear at the start of the week but snow blew in quickly.
“We could hardly see anyone, even within a couple of feet. The wind was blowing snow and visibility was almost zero,” he said. All those in his group survived.
One of his assistants, who was behind the group when the storm hit, was missing for a night but was found the next. “It is a miracle that he is alive,” Gombu said.
Horst Ulrich, a 72-year-old German visiting the country for the fourth time, said four Nepalese guides were swept away by an avalanche. “We were in a dangerous spot and shocked at the conditions we were seeing unfold in front of our eyes,” he said. “We just got lucky.”
Munchang Lama, 35, was marooned while pitching a tent for the two Israeli women he was guiding.
“Suddenly it started raining and I took shelter between two rocks,” said Lama. “Next morning I was not able to walk because my leg was stuck in snow. I realised I would only be able to get out when the snow melted.”
He survived by eating nuts, chocolates and a banana he found in the women’s bags and was rescued on Friday, suffering from frostbite and minor injuries. The two women remain unaccounted for.
Paul Sheridan, a 49-year-old police officer from Doncaster, was another survivor of the blizzards and avalanches. He described seeing a Nepalese boy whose face was frozen: “There was sheer glass ice hanging on his cheek. I went across to him and said: ‘Your face is frozen’, and he went: ‘I know’, and he began to cry and we both began to cry. I didn’t know whether or not this Nepalese boy was going to survive. The injuries to his face were horrific.”
Sheridan said he believed many of the deaths could have been prevented. “Having spoken to my guide, who wasn’t there, but obviously has been there, the weight that the porters carry is so great that they leave their own personal safety equipment behind in order to lighten their load,” he said. “That to me is an absolutely disgusting folly.”
He said trekkers were “herded up the mountain to their death” and someone needed to take responsibility for not having prevented hundreds of them from setting out this week on the 150-mile (240km) route around Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest mountain, which takes three weeks to complete. Thousands of trekkers follow the route every October, when conditions are usually clear.
The Nepalese government has admitted to not issuing a warning that the tail end of a cyclone that hit India last weekend would affect Nepal and has promised to set up an early-warning system.
The incident was the second major mountain disaster in Nepal this year after an avalanche killed 16 guides on Mount Everest in April.
