Nine climbers killed in Mount Manaslu avalanche in Nepal
Kathmandu, Sept. 23 : An avalanche in Nepal killed at least nine climbers including a group of French citizens and other Europeans trying to scale one of the world’s most deadly mountains.
The expedition of about 25 members were near the top of the 8,156-metre (26,759 feet) Manaslu when they were hit by a wall of snow on Saturday night in one of the worst tragedies in Himalayan mountaineering in recent years.
Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world, is considered one of the most dangerous, with scores of deaths in recent years and just a few hundred successful ascents.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres, including the world’s highest, Mount Everest, and attracts thousands of mountaineers every year.
Hundreds of foreign climbers flock every year to Himalayan peaks in Nepal, which has eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest. September marks the beginning of the autumn climbing season which runs through November.
In 2005 a powder-snow avalanche ploughed into a French expedition’s base camp, on Kang Guru, in the Manang region of central Nepal, sweeping all seven members of the team as well as 11 Nepalese staff to their deaths.
Hundreds of foreign climbers flock every year to Himalayan peaks in Nepal, which has eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest. September marks the beginning of the autumn climbing season which runs through November.In the last major accident in the area, at least 42 people including 17 foreigners, were killed in heavy snowfall in the Mount Everest region in 1995. – Agencies
