Hundreds of hikers rescued from Mt. Everest
BEIJING—About 900 hikers, guides and other staff who were stranded by a weekend snowstorm on the Chinese side of Mt. Everest have reached safety, state media said late Tuesday.
A severe storm struck the area on Saturday night, cutting off access to where the hikers were staying in tents at an altitude of more than 4,900 meters (16,000 feet).
In all, 580 hikers and more than 300 guides, yak herders and other workers were stranded. About 350 hikers were able to descend by noon Monday and the rest had arrived by Tuesday, state media said, citing the local government.
Holiday
Some hikers reportedly had hypothermia, and the official Xinhua News Agency said about a dozen of them were escorted to a meeting point by teams with food, medicine, heating and oxygen supplies.
The scenic area at Mt. Everest in China’s Tibet region has been temporarily closed. The 8,850-meter (29,000-foot) peak, the world’s highest, straddles the border with Nepal.
The storm struck during a weeklong holiday that ends on Wednesday. Many Chinese travel at home and abroad during the holiday, which marks the anniversary of the start of Communist Party rule in China on Oct. 1, 1949.
In Nepal, a South Korean climber died in a weekend storm near the summit of Mera Peak, a 6,476-meter (21,250-foot) Himalayan mountain south of Everest.
Early-season snowstorms hit at least two other areas in western China over the weekend, killing one person and stranding motorists on an icy and snowy highway near a scenic hiking spot.
