At least 19 people are dead after an avalanche struck climbers in the Indian Himalayas, authorities said on Friday, with inclement weather hampering the fourth day of search and rescue efforts.
A group of climbing trainees and instructors were caught in a massive snow slide near the summit of Mount Draupadi ka Danda II in northern Uttarakhand state on Tuesday.
“Nineteen bodies were recovered. Ten people are still missing,” state disaster relief agency spokesman Ridhim Aggarwal told AFP.
“Rescue operations have resumed for the day but are weather dependent,” she added. “The weather is bad.”
Police, civil protection agencies and the Indian Air Force were mobilized to assist in the search effort, with 32 people successfully rescued from the mountain despite the snow and rain.
An advanced helipad has been prepared near the avalanche at 4,900 meters (16,000 feet) above sea level, the Indo-Tibetan border police said on Thursday.
Sunil Lalwani, one of the rescued climbing students, credited the instructors with saving many lives.
“We were 50 to 100 meters from the summit with our instructors in front of us when suddenly an avalanche hit us and took everyone with it,” Lalwani was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times on Thursday.
“It happened in seconds and we were thrown into a crevasse. We could kind of breathe… It’s because of them that we’re alive today.”
Among the bodies recovered earlier in the week was mountaineer Savita Kanswal, who scaled Everest earlier this year.
Kanswal was an instructor on the expedition and was hailed by the climbing community for climbing the world’s highest peak and nearby Makalu in just 16 days – a women’s record.
– Fatal accidents common –
Fatal climbing accidents are commonplace in the Himalayas, home to Everest and several of the world’s highest peaks.
The body of a climber was recovered in August, two months after he fell into a crevasse while crossing a glacier in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
Last week, the body of renowned US ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson was found on the slopes of Nepal’s Manaslu peak after she disappeared while skiing the world’s eighth highest mountain.
On the same day, Nepalese climber Anup Rai was killed and a dozen others injured after an avalanche on the 8,163-meter mountain.
Although the effects of climate change on the risks of mountaineering in the Himalayas have not yet been fully researched, climbers have reported widening crevasses, flowing water on previously snow-covered slopes and the increasing formation of glacial lakes.
