Rescuers helping hundreds of Mount Everest hikers trapped by heavy snow

Beijing — Rescue staff had been serving to lots of of hikers trapped by heavy snow at vacationer campsites on a slope of Mount Everest in Tibet, Chinese language state media mentioned late Sunday.

About 350 hikers had reached a gathering level in Tingri nation and rescuers had been in touch with one other 200, state broadcaster CCTV mentioned. There was no quick replace on rescue efforts on Monday.

The hikers had been trapped at an elevation of greater than 16,000 ft, based on an earlier report from Jimu News, a Chinese language on-line web site. Mount Everest is about 29,000 ft tall.

A hiker who rushed to descend earlier than snow blocked the best way informed Jimu News that others nonetheless on the mountain informed him the snow was 3 ft deep and had crushed tents.

One other hiker who made it to security is quoted by the Reuters information company as saying, “It was so moist and chilly within the mountains, and hypothermia was an actual danger. The climate this 12 months just isn’t regular. The information mentioned he had by no means encountered such climate in October. And it occurred all too instantly.”

A whole lot of rescuers headed up the mountain Sunday to clear paths so trapped folks might come down, the Jimu report mentioned. A video shot by a villager confirmed a protracted line of individuals with horses and oxen transferring up a winding path within the snow.

The snowstorm struck throughout a weeklong nationwide vacation in China, when many journey at house and overseas.

In one other mountainous area in western China, one hiker died of hypothermia and altitude illness and 137 others had been evacuated within the northern a part of Qinghai province, CCTV mentioned Monday.

The search in an space in Menyuan County with a median altitude of greater than 13,100 ft was being difficult by the terrain, unpredictable climate and steady snowfall, a CCTV on-line report mentioned.

Mount Everest, generally known as Mount Qomolangma in Chinese language, straddles the border between China and Nepal, the place current heavy rains have wiped away villages and brought about landslides, leaving greater than 40 folks lifeless.

Climbers try and scale the world’s tallest peak from base camps in each international locations. The bottom camp for climbers is separate from the vacationer camp the place hikers had been trapped by the snowfall.

A robust earthquake killed a minimum of 126 folks in the identical space in January.

The Chinese language facet of Everest is in Tibet, a distant western area the place the federal government has cracked down harshly on dissent and poured in funds for financial growth together with roads and tourism.

The Dalai Lama, the non secular chief of Tibetan Buddhism, fled throughout a failed rebellion in 1959 and lives in India, the place some Tibetans have arrange a authorities in exile.