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British survivor of Nepal avalanche: ‘people’s eyes were freezing’ - video Guardian

Nepal rescuers find 11 more bodies, as death toll mounts

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Search teams find 60 more people alive while Britons are among those still missing following storm disaster

Rescuers have found 11 more bodies following the blizzards and avalanches that hit the Himalayas this week, bringing the death toll to at least 39.

A rescue helicopter spotted the bodies of nine Nepalese in the Dolpa district on Saturday, but it could not land due to the steep terrain, said Yadav Koirala, of the disaster management division in Kathmandu.

The bodies of two Japanese tourists were also found at the Thorong La mountain pass, said Keshav Pandey, of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal.

Hundreds of people became trapped in the Himalayas after the area was hit by a sudden snowstorm on Tuesday. Authorities rescued another 60 people on Saturday, bringing the total to 371.

Amateur footage of the blizzard that hit the popular Annapurna trail Guardian

Govinda Pathak, police chief in Mustang district, said the death toll stood at 39, but other reports said it was at least 43 and could exceed 65, with more than 35 tourists and 30 Nepalese losing their lives. Foreign victims included hikers from Canada, India, Israel and Poland.

Several British trekkers were among those still unaccounted for after the unseasonal weather hit a popular 200-mile (320km) trekking route around Annapurna, the world’s tenth-highest mountain.

The discoveries of the bodies come as rescuers are making a final, intensive effort to find any remaining survivors.

“This will be the most rigorous combing and tracking exercise we have launched so far,” said Niranjan Shrestha, the army official leading the search and rescue effort.

The storm, caused by a cyclone which crossed northern India last weekend, caught hikers as they crossed the exposed 5,400-metre Thorong pass, one of the final stages of the famous Annapurna circuit route and its highest point.

At least 17 tourists died from exposure or in avalanches on the pass after the weather deteriorated fast, bringing biting cold, heavy snowfall and low visibility.

Binay Acharya, of TAAN, said he believed “all remaining trekkers in the region are [now] safe” having found shelter or moved to safer ground. “We have not received any further calls for rescue or for information about stranded people,” he said.

Concerns are growing that several British trekkers could have been caught in the storm.

The Foreign Office confirmed it had been contacted by concerned families who have not heard from their relatives in days. But officials in Nepal told the Guardian they had no reports of British casualties.

Lisa Hallet told the Times she had last spoken to her boyfriend Peter Roddis, who is trekking in the Annapurna region, on Wednesday. “He said he was planning to head out that day or on Thursday, but I have not heard from him since,” she said.

October is peak trekking season in Nepal and usually sees ideal conditions for the activity.

Nepal’s biggest mountains largely remain the preserve of experienced mountaineers with technical equipment and experience.

However, trekking is becoming increasingly popular. More than 110,000 foreign trekkers visited Annapurna in 2013 – a significant rise on the 106,000 in 2012.

Authorities have faced widespread criticism over their handling of the disaster, particularly the failure to pass on warnings from the meteorological office to trekkers.

Nepal’s prime minister, Sushil Koirala, has announced plans to set up a new weather warning system to reach trekkers and prevent disasters in the future. The poverty-stricken south-Asian state relies heavily on tourism revenues from climbing and trekking.

Experts said that the current system works well for high-altitude mountaineering expeditions such as those on Everest but not for ordinary walkers.

In comments likely to spark anger, Mohan Krishna Sapkota, spokesman of Nepal’s tourism ministry, said those who suffered most were “cheaper tourists” who did not want to hire individual guides.

Paul Sheridan, a 49-year-old policeman from South Yorkshire who survived the storm, told the Guardian many trekkers and local staff were not adequately equipped.

“There were biting winds and cold so severe it froze your eyelids. But there were people trying to protect their heads with plastic bags and without gloves … It was an accident waiting to happen.”

Trekkers on the Annapurna circuit rely on a system of guesthouses less than a day’s walk apart for accommodation and rarely carry their own tents or cooking equipment.

Few have been trained in poor weather navigation, avalanche avoidance or search techniques.

Sapkota said the “incident has taught us a lesson” and that emergency shelters would be constructed to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The government will also move to restrict people trekking on their own.

“We will strictly record their names and ask them to take all the information about the weather, area and adopt safety measures,” he said.

Ramesh Prasad Dhamala, president of TAAN, said today that in future all trekkers would be required to have at least a guide and porter with them.

It is unclear, however, what system might be put in place to ensure guides are trained and tested.

The snowstorm is one of Nepal’s worst trekking disasters since 1995 when a huge avalanche struck the camp of a Japanese trekking group in the Mount Everest region – killing 42 people, including 13 Japanese.

The Himalayan nation has suffered multiple avalanches this year, with 16 guides killed in April on Everest, forcing an unprecedented shutdown of the world’s highest peak.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains. Income from tourism, including permit fees from trekkers, who made up more than 12% of its 800,000 tourists in 2013, accounts for 4% of its economy.

More on this story

More on this story

  • British trekkers in Nepal urged to contact families after blizzards

  • British survivor of Nepal avalanche: 'people's eyes were freezing' - video

  • Nepal: all surviving trekkers either rescued or safe after storms

  • Nepal trekking disaster: fears over Britons unaccounted for in snowstorms

  • Nepal blames ‘cheap tourists’ for falling victim to snowstorm in Himalayas

  • Nepal blizzard: survivor tells of friends’ deaths on Annapurna circuit

  • Search widens for Nepal snowstorm survivors

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