Mt Everest enthusiast scarred but still raring to go after fatal avalanche

For the second year running, teacher Ada Tsang Yin-hung has failed to conquer the world's highest peak because of a deadly avalanche.

She escaped unscathed last year, but this year, the fierce burst of snow triggered by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake left a permanent crack in the right side of her skull.

Tsang, in her late 30s, is now resting at home waiting for a blood clot in her left brain to fade away, though her head still aches if she speaks too much.

She is thankful to have survived. Five members of her 30-strong expedition team staying at a Mount Everest base camp died in the April 25 daytime avalanche that killed at least 19 people.

"Many teammates didn't dare to sleep because they feared they would never wake up again," Tsang said. "It was a scary night. Avalanches happened four more times during the night and we kept wondering if we would all be buried there. I slept. And amazingly I woke up the next day."

A concussion sustained during the disaster wiped off much of her memory of what happened at the point the mixture of snow and rocks rained down on their camp around noon.