15 hurt in Manaslu avalanche

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Sept. 27: An avalanche that occurred at the base camp of Mount Manaslu in Gorkha district has injured more than 10 persons.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Kedar Khanal of the District Police Office of Gorkha, the avalanche occurred at around 8 am Monday morning, affecting camps 3 and 4 in Chumanuwri Rural Municipality–1 and trapping the mountaineers and their aides who were there at that time. 

Khanal said that they had not been able to determine exactly how many people were at the camps due to loss of contact.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism (DoT) stated that the avalanche had injured 15 people. Based on the data the Department had obtained until Monday afternoon, Yubraj Khatiwada, director of DoT’s Mountaineering Section, told The Rising Nepal that five people had sustained serious injuries with one in critical condition. The remaining 10 are stable. He informed that all of the injured were Nepali nationals.

Three helicopters had flown from Kathmandu to Gorkha for the rescue of the trapped people. However, they could not immediately reach the disaster site due to bad weather, Khatiwada informed. 

On the mountain, the Sherpas from camps 1 and 2 climbed up and conducted search and rescue activities the best they could.

Immediately after the snow slip, a team of policemen was also deployed from the Samagaun Police Station. 

As per the data provided by the DoT, 404 climbers from 38 teams have so far received permission to climb Manaslu this autumn season. 

Manaslu is the eighth-highest mountain in the world and autumn is considered the best time of the year to climb it. 

However, it is also one of the most dangerous peaks of the world and has claimed over 20 lives in the last decade alone. s

(With inputs from our Gorkha correspondent Narendra Dhakal)