Nepal avalanche survivors recount chilling last minutes on 'Killer Peak'
Survivors recall deafening screams and chilling silence in the final minutes of deadly avalanche
Huddled in their sleeping bags, the climbers first heard the avalanche roar towards them and then the sound of screaming before being swept hundreds of metres down the slopes of "Killer Mountain".
Survivors of the weekend tragedy on Nepal's Manaslu mountain, which killed at least nine people, said the scene resembled a war zone, with an entire camp destroyed by snow.
"We were sleeping in our tent after having dinner, when all of a sudden we heard the noise of other climbers screaming. Within moments, we were hit by the avalanche," said Andreas Reiter, one of the trek's survivors.
Reiter was among a group of European adventurers who were near the peak of the 8,156-metre-high Manaslu when the avalanche struck at 4am on Sunday while they were asleep.
"I witnessed one of the team members die," the 26-year-old German said from his hospital bed in Kathmandu where he was being treated for spinal injuries.
Manaslu is called "Killer Mountain" by locals due to a series of avalanches that have killed scores of mountaineers since it was first conquered by Japanese climbers in 1956.
Rescuers have all but given up on finding the three missing climbers. If the deaths are confirmed, the toll of 12 victims would make it the deadliest avalanche on the Himalayas since 2005, when a powder-snow avalanche ploughed into a French expedition's base camp on Kang Guru, killing 18 people.