Avalanche sweeps down Everest, killing at least 12


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KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An avalanche swept down a climbing route on Mount Everest early Friday, killing at least 12 Nepalese guides and leaving four missing in the deadliest disaster on the world's highest peak. Several more were injured.

The Sherpa guides had gone to fix ropes for other climbers when the avalanche struck an area known as the "popcorn field" for its bulging chunks of ice at about 6:30 a.m., Nepal Tourism Ministry official Krishna Lamsal said from the base camp, where he was monitoring rescue efforts.

An injured survivor told his relatives the path up the mountain was unstable just before the avalanche struck at an elevation just below 21,000 feet (6,400 meters). As soon as the avalanche hit, rescuers, guides and climbers rushed to help.

Utah man on Everest
by Nkoyo Iyamba

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man in Nepal training to climb Mount Everest said the deaths of at least 12 guides on Everest Friday impact the whole international climbing community.

Alpine resident Greg Paul was training to climb Everest on a different mountain in Nepal when the avalanche occurred Thursday. Paul is attempting to be the first person with two artificial knees to summit Everest.

His daughter, Rebecca McAllister, is keeping track of his journey.

"Ever since I can remember he's been climbing mountains. And I can remember joking to my friends, 'My dad's going to climb Everest someday,' " McAllister said.

McAllister received a call from her dad at about 3 a.m. Friday, saying that he and the climbers in his group were all safe, and any climbing activity in the surrounding area is at a standstill as crews work to stabilize the avalanche zone.

Paul told his daughter that Everest climbers rely on Sherpas as guides who find safe routes throughout a climb.

"As you go up climbing, you get to meet a lot of Sherpas and their families and go into their homes and participate in different ceremonies they do," McAllister said. "I know they have a ceremony before any of the climbers go into the mountain."

Sherpas often place themselves in danger to create safe passage through ice and snow for climbers, McAllister said.

"They're the ice doctors. They prepare things so all these professional climbers can make it to the top," she said.

Former Utah legislator Stephen Sandstrom knows the value of Sherpas from personal experience of climbing partially up Everest. He said without Sherpas, the climb would be impossible.

Sandstrom believes that this tragedy will disrupt climbing for a while.

"(Sherpas) are the ones that set the fixed rope through the ice fall, they set the ladder. And the ice fall is like a living organism almost. It can move as much as 3 or 4 feet a day," Sandstrom said.

McAllister said she expects her father will be ready to climb Mount Everest in two weeks. However, climbing activities may not resume by that time.

Contributing: Martha Ostergar

Rescue workers pulled out 12 bodies from under mounds of snow and ice and were searching for the four missing guides, Lamsal said. Officials had earlier said three were missing.

Four survivors were injured badly enough to require airlifting to a hospital in Katmandu. One arrived during the day, and three taken to the foothill town of Lukla could be evacuated Saturday. Others with less serious injuries were being treated at base camp.

The avalanche struck ahead of the peak climbing season, when hundreds of climbers, guides and support crews were at Everest's base camp preparing to climb to the summit when weather conditions are at their most favorable early next month. They had been setting up camps at higher altitudes, and guides were fixing routes and ropes on the slopes above.

The wall of snow and ice hit just below Camp 2, which sits at an elevation of 21,000 feet on the 29,036-foot mountain, said Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

One injured guide, Dawa Tashi, lay in the intensive care unit at Grande Hospital in the capital late Friday after being evacuated from the mountain. Doctors said he suffered several broken ribs and would be in the hospital for a few days.

Tashi told his visiting relatives that the Sherpa guides woke up early and were on their way to fix ropes to the higher camps but were delayed because of the unsteady path. Suddenly the avalanche fell on the group and buried many of them, according to Tashi's sister-in-law Dawa Yanju.

The Sherpa people are one of the main ethnic groups in Nepal's alpine region, and many make their living as climbing guides on Everest and other Himalayan peaks.

More than 4,000 climbers have summited Everest since 1953, when it was first conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hundreds have died attempting to reach the peak.

The worst recorded disaster on Everest had been a fierce blizzard on May 11, 1996, that caused the deaths of eight climbers, including famed mountaineer Rob Hall, and was later memorialized in a book, "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer. Six Nepalese guides were killed in an avalanche in 1970.

Earlier this year, Nepal announced several steps to better manage the heavy flow of climbers and speed up rescue operations. The steps included the dispatch of officials and security personnel to the base camp at 17,380 feet (5,300 meters), where they will stay throughout the spring climbing season that ends in May.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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