Sherpas still missing after 13 killed in Everest ice avalanche

THREE sherpa guides are still missing on Mount Everest after 13 were killed by an ice avalanche.

It was the worst single accident on the world’s highest mountain since records began in 1922.

The search for the missing three continued yesterday. Eight sherpas were rescued on Friday. Five of them are in a critical condition, with fears that the number of dead could rise as high as 20.

Yesterday sherpas pulled a 13th body from the snow and ice as they scoured a perilous Mount Everest pass for their missing colleagues.

Aided by helicopters, the sherpa rescuers worked as fast as possible to find the missing before the weather deteriorated. But the search was nevertheless painstaking as the sherpas navigated the unstable snow field using ropes and ladders.

The sherpas caught in the ice slide were among dozens who had set out at dawn to fix ropes for clients’ attempt to scale the summit, the first of the climbing season.

Climbers declared a four-day halt to expeditions on the 29 029 ft summit (about 8 848m) and some said they were calling off their ascents entirely as the tragedy brought home the dangers faced daily by the sherpas.

“Everyone is shaken here at Base Camp. Some climbers are packing up and calling it quits, they want nothing to do with this. Reality has set in,” Tim Rippel of Peak Freaks Expeditions wrote in a blog.

“I sat and counted 13 helicopter lifts — 12 were dead bodies flying overhead, suspended by a long line from a helicopter.” — © The Daily Telegraph, London