5 Russian climbers die on Nepal’s Dhaulagiri peak, hiking company says
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Mountain climbing provides Nepal – home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains – crucial employment and income.
PHOTO: AFP
KATHMANDU – Five Russian climbers who have been missing on Nepal’s Mount Dhaulagiri since the weekend were found dead on the world’s seventh tallest mountain, their hiking company said on Oct 8.
There had been no contact with the climbers, who were scaling the 8,167m peak without Sherpa guides, since the evening of Oct 6, when they reached a height of 7,700m.
A search-and-rescue helicopter saw the bodies of all five at an altitude of about 7,600m on the mountain in western Nepal, said Mr Pemba Jangbu Sherpa, a senior official of the company providing logistics support to the Russian team.
Further details were not immediately available.
“They might have been tied to the same rope,” said Mr Pemba, who goes by his first name. “One of them could have slipped on the slope, and all five fell together.”
Another member of the team, who was exhausted and unable to walk, has been evacuated and is being treated at a hospital in Kathmandu, said Mr Pemba, whose company is named “I Am Trekking and Expedition”.
Mountain climbing is a key tourism activity in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, providing crucial employment and income. REUTERS
