About 900 hikers, guides, and staff stranded by a severe snowstorm on Mount Everest in China have reached safety. Rescue teams provided food, medicine, heating, and oxygen to those affected. The scenic area is now temporarily closed due to heavy snowfall
villagers with their oxen and horses ascend the mountain during rescue efforts to reach hundreds of hikers trapped. Pic/AFP
About 900 hikers, guides and other staff who were stranded by a weekend snowstorm on the Chinese side of Mount Everest have reached safety, state media said during the late hours of Tuesday. Soon after their rescues, about a dozen of the hikers were escorted to a meeting point with the help of local teams carrying food, medicine, heating and oxygen supplies, as per news agency AP.
Earlier on Saturday, a severe storm struck the area, cutting off access to where the hikers were staying in tents at an altitude of more than 4,900 metres.
In all, 580 hikers and more than 300 guides, yak herders and other workers were stranded. News agency AP also reported that about 350 hikers were able to descend by noon Monday, and the rest had arrived by Tuesday, as per the local government.
News agency AP further reported that hikers who were stranded reportedly had hypothermia, and therefore they were escorted to a meeting point by teams with food, medicine, heating and oxygen supplies, considering their medical condition.
However, with unfavourable weather conditions, the scenic area at Mount Everest has now been temporarily closed to everyone. The storm struck during a weeklong national holiday that ended on Wednesday, and the situation in the region now looks comparatively better. Heavy snowfall began to hit Dingri on Saturday evening, affecting the hikers along mountain trails near Qudeng.
Further reported by news agency AP, a South Korean climber lost his life in the weekend storm near the summit of Mera Peak, which is a 6,476-metre Himalayan mountain south of Everest.
The county government mobilised emergency teams to coordinate communication and relief efforts in the affected area. Dingri County on Sunday announced that several scenic areas, including Mount Everest, called Qomolangma in the scenic area of China, were temporarily closed due to heavy snowfall.
While the situation across the region remains concerning around the mountain range, China is currently shut down for an eight-day holiday from October 1 onwards to celebrate the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.
While the weather situation now seems to be fine, the official also asserted that “all stranded hikers caught in blizzards on the Tibetan slopes of Mt Everest have been rescued.
(With inputs from AP)
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