More than 200 hikers still stranded as blizzard hits Mount Everest

Chinese rescuers rushed on Monday to evacuate hundreds of hikers blocked on the eastern slope of the highest mountain in the world, Mont Everest, after strong snowfall covered campsites during the weekend.

Nearly 350 hikers have already went safe at a meeting point in the small canton of Qudang, according to the CCTV state broadcaster, with rescuers also in contact with more than 200 hikers who “will gradually arrive at the meeting point”.

Local media had initially pointed out that nearly 1,000 people had been affected by the Blizzard. Local rescue officials were not immediately available to comment on the difference in number.

No victim has been reported, according to local media.

“About a third in the trek, he started raining and the rain continued to become heavier,” said Chen Geshuang, a 28-year-old astrophotograph who started climbing on Saturday afternoon but decided to retreat on Sunday at NBC News In an online video interview.

“Later, he turned into a Grazil, and finally a complete blizzard.”

Some hikers shoven the snow of their tents in the middle of the blizzard, while others have waded in a bad visibility line, showed social media videos verified by NBC News.

The hikers had been trapped nearly 16,000 feet, according to a report by Jimu News, which added that the local villagers and the rescue teams had been deployed to clean the roads blocked by snow.

Unusually intense snowfall started on Friday evening on Friday evening and continued until Saturday in the Gama valley in Tingri in the Tibet autonomous region, “disturbing the routes of certain tourists hiking in the region,” said CCTV.

In a few hours, part of the Chen team presented signs of light hypothermia and cold stress, she said. Saturday evening, the storm intensified with lightning almost every minute.

“It was an agonizing night,” she said. “When we woke up this morning, the snow was extremely deep – about 1 meter, reaching our thighs.”

The group decided to withdraw, arriving at the foot of the mountain Sunday evening. Nepal neighbor was also struck by strong precipitation, where at least 44 people were killed by landslides and floods.

The severe weather event occurred while more than 299 million people were to travel to the region on Sunday due to a weekly national holiday that included the Chinese national day last week and the mid-autumn festival on Monday, video surveillance said in a separate report.

Ticket sales and entry into the picturesque Everest zone were suspended on Saturday evening, according to the official WeChat Tingri Co. -Local Tingri County account accounts.

Mount Everest, at 29,000 feet, is called Mount Qomolangma into Chinese, and it extends along the border of Tibet and Nepal, and the climbers of the two countries try to develop the peak along different slopes.

While the Nepalese part has experienced a boom of tourism linked to Everest and significant investments, the Tibetan part is particularly distant.