All of the trekkers left stranded by a major snowstorm in Nepal’s Himalayas are safe, officials said yesterday, with the focus now shifting to the recovery of bodies after Tuesday’s disaster killed at least 32 people.
Nepalese army helicopters circled the upper reaches of the popular Annapurna Circuit trekking region to locate bodies, while officials flew in a team of experts from Kathmandu to assist with retrieval.
The unseasonal storm, which hit at the height of the trekking season triggering avalanches, caught hikers unaware on their way up to an exposed high mountain pass, and killed at least 17 tourists.
“We understand that all remaining trekkers in the region are safe,” said Binay Acharya of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal, an industry body organizing rescue efforts.
“We have not received any further calls for rescue or for information about stranded people,” Acharya told reporters.
“Since Wednesday, we have rescued 385 people, including 180 foreigners,” police official Harikrishna KC said.
Rescuers on Friday recovered the body of a Nepalese porter, taking the death toll to 32, including 24 hikers, guides and porters on the trekking circuit, three yak herders as well as five climbers on a mountain in the area.
Thousands of people head to the Annapurna Circuit in October every year, when weather conditions are usually good. However, the region has seen unusually heavy snowfall this week sparked by Cyclone Hudhud, which slammed into India’s east coast last Sunday.
Meanwhile, Nepal’s government blamed poor weather forecasts and lax regulation after the storm struck at high altitude on the edge of the Tibetan plateau.
Nepal relies heavily on income from climbers and trekkers. The latest accident has renewed focus on the mountain sports industry after 16 Sherpas died in an avalanche on Mount Everest in April in the deadliest accident on the world’s highest peak.
The government failed to issue any warnings about the risk of snow or avalanches as scores of tour groups set off towards the 5,416m-high Thorong La pass on Tuesday during the peak climbing season, favored by tourists because the air is generally cool and clear.
Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala promised to set up early weather warning centers in mountain and river areas and called on the private sector to help the cash-strapped government.
“It is a matter of great sadness that so many people lost their lives at a time when there are facilities to receive global weather information regularly … This incident, which comes a few months after the one on Sagarmatha [Mount Everest], has underlined the need to consider the development of tourism in a new way,” Koirala said.
Nepalese Chief Secretary Lella Mani Paridyal told reporters: “We are in a state of shock and this disaster is a wake-up call. The weather forecast was faulty, inaccurate, and this will not be tolerated any more.”
Nepal’s weather forecasting system predicted rain but not the snow, government officials said.
Until now the government has set few limits on tour groups, partly because climbing and trekking are a business worth US$800 million per year in a country that is one of the poorest in the world.
Daily weather forecasts are to be reviewed before a decision is made on whether to allow tourists on to the mountains, a government official said, adding that the government would require all tourists and guides to purchase a tracking device to make it easier to locate people if there is a disaster.
Inexperienced trekkers and tour agencies are equally to blame for many mountain accidents because they lack the right equipment and do not employ experienced guides, said Adrian Ballinger, a Canadian mountain guide who organizes treks in the Himalayas.
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