Chinese rescuers were on Monday rushing to evacuate hundreds of hikers stranded on the eastern slope of the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, after heavy snowfall blanketed campsites over the weekend.
Nearly 350 hikers have already traveled to safety at a rendezvous point in the small township of Qudang, according to state broadcaster CCTV, with rescuers also in contact with the remaining over 200 hikers who “will gradually arrive at the rendezvous point.”
Local news outlets had initially reported that nearly 1,000 people had been affected by the blizzard. Local rescue officials were not immediately available for comment on the discrepancy in numbers.
No casualties were reported, according to local media.
“About one-third into the trek, it began to rain and the rain kept getting heavier,” Chen Geshuang, a 28-year-old astrophotographer who began climbing Saturday afternoon but decided to retreat Sunday, told NBC News in an online video interview.
“Later, it turned into sleet, and eventually a full-on blizzard.”
Some hikers shoveled snow out of their tents amid the blizzard, while others waded in a line through the snowstorm in poor visibility, social media videos verified by NBC News showed.
The hikers had been trapped at nearly 16,000 feet, according to a report in Jimu News, which added that local villagers and rescue teams had been deployed to clear the roads blocked by snow.
At 29,000 feet, Mount Everest is considered the world’s tallest mountain when measured from sea level.
The unusually intense snowfall began Friday night and continued through Saturday in the Gama Valley of Tingri County in the autonomous region of Tibet, “disrupting the itineraries of some tourists hiking in the area,” CCTV said.
Within hours, some of Chen’s team were exhibiting signs of mild hypothermia and cold stress, she said. By Saturday night, the storm intensified with lightning almost every minute.
“It was a nerve-wracking night,” she said. “When we woke up this morning, the snow was extremely deep— about one meter, reaching up to our thighs.”
The group decided to retreat, arriving at the foot of the mountain Sunday evening. Neighboring Nepal was also hit with heavy rainfall, where at least 44 people were killed from landslides and floods.
The severe weather event occurred as more than 299 million people were expected to travel regionally on Sunday due to a weeklong national holiday that included China’s National Day last week and the Mid-Autumn Festival on Monday, CCTV said in a separate report.
Ticket sales and entry to the Everest Scenic Area was suspended late Saturday, according to notices on the official WeChat accounts of the local Tingri County Tourism Company.
Mount Everest is called Mount Qomolangma in Chinese, and it stretches along the border of Tibet and Nepal, and climbers from both countries attempt to scale the peak along different slopes.
While the Nepalese side has seen a boom in Everest-related tourism and significant investment, the Tibetan side is especially remote.
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