KATHMANDU, Nepal — At least two people were killed and five more are missing after an avalanche swept through a camp on Nepal’s Mount Yalung Ri, officials in the South Asian country said.
Two Nepali guides were killed, the District Administration Office in Nepal's Dolakha region said in a news release Tuesday. Two Italian citizens were missing, along with three climbers from Canada, France and Italy, the release said. All of them are men.
Five Nepali men and three French women were also receiving treatment after they were injured by the avalanche, the release said.
In an earlier interview with NBC News on Monday, Gyan Kumar Mahato, a deputy superintendent with the Nepal Police, had said that three Americans had been killed. He said that two bodies had been recovered and five people remained missing.
The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
The State Department said Monday that it was aware of media reports of U.S. citizen deaths in the avalanche but was still working to gather further information.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and stand ready to provide consular assistance,” a spokesperson said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families of all those affected.”
Isabelle Thaon, a climber from France who survived the incident, said the avalanche was over 900 feet wide and “really rapid.”
Thaon said she and a fellow trekker were “really lucky” to not be swept under the snow.
The pair waited a “long time” until someone came to their rescue, she said.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by poor weather as well as the high altitude of the site, which Armed Police Force spokesperson Shailendra Thapa told Reuters was 16,070 feet.
Alan Arnette, a mountaineering expert from Colorado who has climbed Mount Everest, told NBC News that the delay had greatly reduced the chances of finding survivors.
“It turned into a recovery operation, and the No. 1 rule of recovery is for the rescuers not to become the victims,” Arnette said.
“They must go very carefully and very slowly, take care of the injured first, evacuate them out by helicopter when it’s safe and then look for the bodies, if possible,” he added.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest. Yalung Ri peaks at 18,370 feet.
While spring is the most popular climbing season, as weather is favorable on tall peaks, hundreds of foreign climbers come to climb smaller peaks during the autumn, between the rainy monsoon months and winter.
“Mountaineering is a sport of choice. No one’s forcing anybody to make you go. And so that’s why it really becomes incumbent upon the individual to be responsible,” said Arnette, the mountaineering expert.
“Because often, if you get into trouble, it’s not only you that are in trouble, but you’re putting the rescuers in trouble, and perhaps even your teammates.”
Manish Paudel reported from Kathmandu and Shira Pinson from London.
