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Three Nepalese sherpa guides went missing on Mount Everest after an avalanche descended and buried them in a crevasse on Wednesday, Tourism Department officials said.
The avalanche hit the most popular southeast ridge route to the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
Three guides carrying climbing equipment for their clients were caught at an unspecified site between Base Camp and Camp I at the bottom.
Everest Base Camp, which serves as a tent city during the March to May climbing season, is located at an altitude of about 5,350 meters, and Camp I is set above the Khumbu Icefall, the first major physical obstacle to the summit, at an altitude of about 6,050 meters.
“A block of snow fell and buried him,” Tourism Department official Yubaraj Khatiwada told Reuters.
Wednesday’s disaster was the first on Mount Everest during this year’s climbing season, when hundreds of foreign and Nepali climbers are expected to flock to the mountain to attempt the 8,849-meter climb.
Climbing Everest is a popular adventure sport
Mount Everest was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and his fellow sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Thousands of climbers have scaled the summit since then and around 300 climbers have died on the slopes so far, including 18 after an avalanche in 2015.
Khatiwada said a search helicopter had been mobilized for the sherpas who were believed to be buried in a 50-metre ravine.
Ground search teams have also failed to find the missing climber so far, Khatiwada said.
Nepal, located between China and India, is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, including Everest.
Climbing Mount Everest and many other smaller peaks is a popular adventure sport in Nepal, as well as a source of employment and income for the cash-strapped country.
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