All of the due to intense snowstorms this week have been successfully evacuated, according to local media reports.
“580 hikers and over 300 personnel, including local guides and yak herders, have arrived safely in a nearby town,” reported the state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday evening.
A further dozen people were reported to have been brought to a secure meeting point on the on the east side of the world’s highest mountain, where they have access to supplies.
“Local staff are organizing their return journeys in an orderly manner,” reported Xinhua.
Heavy snowfall over the weekend caught hundreds of hikers off guard across the Himalayan region, with tents crushed by snow and trails rendered impassable.
Groups of climbers and hikers, including both paying tourists and their local guides, found themselves trapped at altitudes of around 4,900 meters (about 16,075 feet) – over halfway up the world’s highest peak, which rises to a total of 8,849 meters.
On Monday, emergency services told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV that one person had died from hypothermia and altitude sickness in the neighboring Chinese province of Qinghai.
The snowstorms struck during China’s “Golden Week,” a period of eight national holidays in which many people, both locals and tourists, travel to the mountains.
Edited by Sean Sinico
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