On Monday, a group of twelve mountaineers was hit by an avalanche at the base camp of Mount Yalung Ri. Seven of them died – three Italians, two Nepalese, one German and one French. The rest of the group was taken to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu for treatment on Tuesday.
The others were under the snow, they said they think there was six meters of snow. (...) It was impossible to help them, says French Isabelle Solange, who lost her husband in the avalanche, to the PA news agency.
Meanwhile, two more Italian climbers have been confirmed dead after being missing since Friday. The men perished while attempting to climb the 6,887-meter Himalayan peak of Panbari.
"The compatriots were caught in heavy snowfall at the first camp, 5,000 meters above sea level," reads a statement from Italy's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday morning.
The Himalayas are home to eight of the world's ten highest peaks and attract thousands of climbers and trekkers each year. Since the 1950s, at least 1,093 people have lost their lives trying to scale the mountain range's peaks, according to the Himalayan Database. Avalanches have accounted for nearly a third of the deaths.
