Beijing — Rescue staff had been serving to a whole lot 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 instant replace on rescue efforts on Monday.
The hikers had been trapped at an elevation of greater than 16,000 toes, in keeping with an earlier report from Jimu Information, a Chinese language on-line web site. Mount Everest is about 29,000 toes tall.
A hiker who rushed to descend earlier than snow blocked the way in which informed Jimu Information that others nonetheless on the mountain informed him the snow was 3 toes 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 shouldn’t be regular. The information mentioned he had by no means encountered such climate in October. And it occurred all too abruptly.”
A whole lot of rescuers headed up the mountain Sunday to clear paths so trapped individuals may come down, the Jimu report mentioned. A video shot by a villager confirmed an extended line of individuals with horses and oxen shifting up a winding path within the snow.
Geshuang Chen / Handout through Reuters
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 toes was being difficult by the terrain, unpredictable climate and steady snowfall, a CCTV on-line report mentioned.
Mount Everest, often known as Mount Qomolangma in Chinese language, straddles the border between China and Nepal, the place current heavy rains have wiped away villages and prompted landslides, leaving greater than 40 individuals useless.
Climbers try and scale the world’s tallest peak from base camps in each nations. The bottom camp for climbers is separate from the vacationer camp the place hikers had been trapped by the snowfall.
A powerful earthquake killed at the least 126 individuals 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 religious 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.
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