Every Single Mountaineers Now Secure After Days Caught in Powerful Winter Storm

Search parties have successfully guided all of the last hikers near the eastern slopes of Mount Everest in the Tibet region to safety, along with numerous of native guides and animal tenders, local government reported. This concludes one of the largest rescue and recovery efforts ever conducted in the zone.

Large-Scale Evacuation Effort Completed

Several hundred of trekkers were left stranded in thick snow over the past few days in the remote Karma valley, after an unexpectedly intense blizzard dumped significant snowfall across the area.

Snow persisted all day Saturday in the valley, which is located at an mean altitude of 4,200 meters (13,800 feet). By Sunday, emergency teams had escorted approximately 350 hikers to security.

Initial updates had estimated that the remaining roughly 200 travelers were expected to reach safety by Tuesday.

In total, 580 hikers, in addition to more than 300 local guides, livestock herders, and other support staff were rescued, according to official reports released on Tuesday late in the day.

Survivors Recount Severe Situations

One Chinese traveler shared how their group had been “too anxious to sleep” on Saturday, as snow swiftly built up around their tents, compelling them to remove it every 90 minutes. They decided to go down on Sunday as the weather worsened.

“On the way, we came across our guide’s father, who had come looking for him. That’s when we found out the snow was heavy in the valley, too; local residents, unable to contact their children on the mountain, were deeply concerned.”

Climbing Schedules Disrupted

The severe weather also thwarted the objectives of alpinists led by a US-based mountaineering outfit to summit Cho Oyu, an 8,188-meter (26,864-foot) peak on the boundary between China and Nepal.

Visitor Increase in the Region

Karma valley was first explored by western explorers a hundred years ago. In the past few years, with the development of the Everest region in Tibet as a major visitor attraction, the area has attracted an increasing number of visitors. More than 540,000 sightseers visited the Everest region last year, marking a new record.

Area Still Off-Limits

The Everest region remains currently inaccessible to the public, including the Karma and Rongshar valleys, as well as Cho Oyu.

Broader Effect

The intense snowfall over the weekend also influenced many of hikers in other parts of the western regions of China, such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu. Unfortunately, at least one person lost their life, due to a blend of hypothermia and altitude sickness.

Unusual Weather

October is typically a busy season for the area, with normally clear and mild weather, but one trekker of an 18-person trekking group that made it back to Qudang noted that the weather this year was “not normal.”