At least 4 dead, dozens stuck after avalanche in Indian Himalayas

At least four mountaineers were killed on Tuesday in an avalanche in the Indian Himalayas, and dozens were stuck in a crevasse, officials said.

Media reports put the death toll at 10 following the incident, which took place at around 16,000 feet in the northern state of Uttarakhand and involved a group of around 40 people.

“We have confirmation of four deaths out of the 33 people trapped. Around eight of them have already been rescued and the rest are trapped in a crevasse,” Ridhim Aggarwal from the State Disaster Response Force told AFP.

The group included 34 trainees from a local mountaineering institute and seven instructors, the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering said in a statement.

The avalanche struck at around 8:45 am on the 5,670-metre Mount Draupadi ka Danda-II.

Vishal Ranjan, registrar with the mountaineering institute, confirmed the four deaths and said the rescue operation “has been stopped for now because of heavy rainfall and snowfall in the region.”

“We sent two air force choppers to the region and the third one is here on standby for now because of bad weather there,” Devendra Singh Patwal, a senior disaster management official, told AFP.

“There has been no contact with the choppers for now because of the weather conditions and connectivity in the region,” Patwal said.

“Deeply anguished by the loss of precious lives due to landslide which has struck the mountaineering expedition carried out by the Nehru Mountaineering Institute in Uttarkashi,” Defense Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.

He added that rescue operations were underway to help the mountaineers who are still trapped. “Praying for everyone’s safety and well-being,” he tweeted.

In August, the body of a mountaineer was recovered two months after he fell into a crevasse while crossing a glacier in the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh.

And last week, renowned U.S. ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson’s body was found on the slopes of Nepal’s Manaslu peak after she went missing skiing down the world’s eighth-highest mountain. Nelson fell from Mount Manaslu while skiing down with her partner, Jim Morrison. She was given a traditional funeral at a Sherpa cremation ground on Sunday.

On the day of Nelson’s accident, an avalanche hit between Camps 3 and 4 on the 26,781-foot mountain, killing Nepali climber Anup Rai and injuring a dozen others who were later rescued.

Although no substantial research has been done on the impacts of climate change on mountaineering risks in the Himalayas, climbers have reported crevasses widening, running water on previously snowy slopes, and the increasing formation of glacial lakes.