Three Nepali Sherpa climbers go missing on Everest after avalanche sweeps through popular Southeast Ridge
- Trio were ferrying climbing gear for their clients were caught at an unspecified site between the Base Camp and Camp I on its lower parts
- Helicopter set to locate sherpas who are believed to have been buried in a 50-metre crevasse
Three Nepali Sherpa guides are missing on Mount Everest after an avalanche swept down and buried them in a crevasse on Wednesday, a tourism department official said.
The avalanche hit the most popular Southeast Ridge route to the summit of the world’s tallest mountain.
Three guides who were ferrying climbing gear for their clients were caught at an unspecified site between the Base Camp and Camp I on its lower parts.
The Everest Base Camp, which turns into a tented city during the March-May climbing season, is located at an altitude of about 5,350 metres (17,552 feet) and Camp I is pitched across the treacherous Khumbu Icefall, the first major physical hurdle to the peak, at an altitude of about 6,050 metres.
Wednesday’s disaster was the first on Mount Everest during this year’s climbing season, when hundreds of foreign and Nepali climbers are expected flock to the mountain to attempt to reach its 8,849 metres peak.
Mount Everest was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and his climbing mate Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.