🔗 Share this article

Search parties have safely led all of the remaining hikers near the eastern slopes of Everest in the Tibet region to safety, along with numerous of local guides and livestock handlers, authorities announced. This concludes one of the biggest rescue and recovery operations ever conducted in the area.

Large-Scale Rescue Effort Concluded

Several hundred of trekkers were found themselves stuck in thick snow over the weekend in the isolated Karma valley, after an unusually fierce winter blast unleashed substantial snowfall across the territory.

Snow kept coming down all day Saturday in the valley, which is located at an mean altitude of 4,200 meters (13,800 feet). By Sunday, rescue personnel had guided approximately 350 hikers to safety.

Previous accounts had estimated that the last group of roughly 200 hikers were projected to reach safety by Tuesday.

In total, 580 trekkers, in addition to more than 300 local guides, livestock herders, and other support staff were rescued, according to government statements released on Tuesday late in the day.

Those Rescued Recount Harsh Conditions

One Chinese trekker described how their group had been “too anxious to sleep” on Saturday, as snow quickly piled up around their tents, forcing them to remove it every 90 minutes. They decided to go down on Sunday as the situation became more severe.

“On the way, we encountered our guide’s father, who had set out for him. That’s when we realized the snow was heavy in the valley, too; villagers, unable to contact their children on the mountain, were deeply concerned.”

Expedition Plans Disrupted

The snowstorm also disrupted the objectives of alpinists led by a US-based climbing outfit to ascend Cho Oyu, an 8,188-meter (26,864-foot) peak on the border between the People's Republic of China and Nepal.

Tourism Growth in the Area

Karma valley was first visited by foreign adventurers a century ago. In the past few years, with the development of the Everest region in Tibet as a significant travel attraction, the area has brought in an rising number of travelers. More than 540,000 tourists traveled to the Everest region last year, establishing a all-time high.

Region Remains Closed

The Everest region is still temporarily off-limits to the general public, encompassing the Karma and Rongshar valleys, as well as Cho Oyu.

Wider Effect

The significant snowfall over the weekend also affected many of trekkers in other parts of the western regions of China, for example Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Gansu. Tragically, at least one traveler succumbed, due to a combination of hypothermia and high-altitude illness.

Atypical Conditions

October is typically a high season for the area, with typically fine and pleasant weather, but one trekker of an 18-person trekking group that made it back to Qudang commented that the weather this year was “atypical.”