At least 15 Nepali mountain workers were killed and another remained missing after a massive avalanche buried a base camp on Himlung Himal in northern Nepal, striking a team that had been preparing the mountain for foreign climbers.
The workers were setting up tents and fixing ropes along the climbing route when the avalanche swept through the camp. Rescue teams have recovered 15 bodies from beneath the snow, while operations are continuing to locate the missing worker.
Climbers had not arrived
The foreign mountaineers for whom the Nepali team was preparing the expedition had not yet reached the affected site when the avalanche struck, preventing the casualty toll from being significantly higher.
Mountain workers typically reach expedition sites before climbers to establish camps, transport equipment, prepare routes and install ropes across technically difficult sections. The work exposes them to prolonged periods in avalanche-prone and unstable terrain.
The Himlung Himal accident has emerged as the deadliest incident of Nepal's autumn climbing season, once again highlighting the risks faced by Nepali guides, porters and high-altitude workers who form the backbone of the country's mountaineering industry.
Rescue operation continues
Rescuers faced difficult conditions as they searched through deep snow and avalanche debris for the missing worker. Recovery operations at high altitude can be severely constrained by unstable snow, changing weather and the possibility of secondary avalanches.
Authorities are expected to examine the circumstances that triggered the avalanche and conditions on the mountain before the expedition preparations began.
Himlung Himal, a 7,126-metre peak near Nepal's border with Tibet, attracts international expeditions and is considered an important training ground for climbers preparing for higher Himalayan peaks.
Changing mountain conditions
The disaster has also renewed concern about changing conditions across the Himalayas. Scientists and mountaineering experts have repeatedly warned that warming temperatures are altering glaciers, snow cover and ice formations across the mountain range.
Retreating glaciers and unstable ice can change traditional climbing routes and increase uncertainty for expedition workers. Sudden temperature variations can also weaken snow and ice formations, although the precise cause of an individual avalanche requires specific meteorological and geological assessment.
For Nepal's high-altitude workers, such changes add another layer of risk to an occupation already regarded as among the most dangerous in the mountaineering industry.
The Himlung Himal tragedy has again drawn attention to the disproportionate dangers faced by local workers who travel ahead of international expeditions to make the mountains accessible, often spending considerably longer periods in hazardous terrain than the climbers they support.