Travel & Tourism

Heavy snowfall triggered by late monsoon has affected hundreds of trekkers in the Himalayan region of Nepal, with fresh reports suggesting at least one death in Annapurna area. Three Nepali guides remain missing in the nearby Manaslu area.

Nepali Army spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal told NepalMinute.com that the army is flooded with requests to rescue trekkers stranded in Annapurna, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri and Dolpa regions. “We are trying our best to help,” he said.

On Sunday, a Nepali Army helicopter rescued a stranded Nepali national, Deepak Bika from Manaslu area in Gorkha district. His condition is said to be stable after medical treatment, but an American national has died during the course of medical treatment in Lamjung of the Annapurna region. 

According to the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal, nearly 300 trekkers need urgent assistance in Dolpa, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu region, where heavy snowfall has covered trekking trails, making human movements impossible. 

Because of the unseasonal rains and snowfall that lashed much of Nepal this week, even Everest-bound trekkers have been affected. “More than 2,000 of them are stranded in Ramechhap; they are still waiting for flights to resume so that they can land in Lukla [in the Everest region],” Khum Bahadur Subedi, a TAAN official told NepalMinute.com 

Rescue efforts

Nepal’s state-owned news agency RSS reported that 82 trekkers – 73 international and nine national – stranded in Manang along the Annapurna Circuit trail have been rescued by helicopters. 

Subedi said search and rescue efforts are on to locate trekking guides missing in Manaslu, as well as help a group of French trekkers in upper Dolpa. 

Late monsoon rains, coupled with this week’s unseasonal rain and snowfall, have left a trail of destruction across central and western Nepal – with reports of floods, inundation and deaths of over two dozen people in Kalikot, Humla and Mugu districts. 

Prior to that, unfavourable monsoon made life difficult for hundreds of climbers vying to scale Mount Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain, where a famed US ski mountaineer and two Nepali guides lost their lives. 

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• Also Read: How solo trekkers went missing in Nepal