Unusually heavy snowfall halts tourism on Mount Everest in Nepal, Tibet and ETTravelWorld

Image credit – iStock-483629308

The Nepalese and Chinese sides of the Everest region were closed to tourism on Wednesday due to unseasonably heavy snowfall, and a helicopter crashed in deep piles of snow while trying to rescue stranded hikers.

The area around Mount Everest, visited by thousands of trekkers and climbers, has been blanketed in snow since Monday as a cyclone moved from the Bay of Bengal across India, bringing a second wave of heavy snowfall in the Himalayas this month.

Authorities in Nepal have halted trekking on several hiking trails due to rain at lower elevations and heavy snowfall on higher trails, and have urged trekkers not to venture or continue their treks in the Annapurna, Manaslu and Dhaulagiri regions, home to some of the world’s highest peaks.

A small private helicopter heading to Lobuche near Mount Everest base camp to rescue stranded trekkers crashed when it tried to land, said Gyanendra Bhole, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

CAAN video showed the helicopter, which slid on the snow as it landed, lying on its side. The pilot survived and was later rescued. It was not clear whether the hikers were rescued.

Meteorological officials expected heavy rain and snow on Thursday and Friday due to the passage of Cyclone Monthha, which struck the southeastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday evening.

On the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, ticket sales have been suspended since Tuesday afternoon, as roads became covered in ice and visibility decreased, creating impassable conditions for vehicular traffic, according to the Tengri County Tourism Department.

It is not clear whether there are tourists trapped inside the Everest region in Tibet. The Tibetan government press office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Weather forecast data indicates that temperatures in Tingri are expected to drop below freezing this week.

In early October, hundreds of hikers were stranded by a snowstorm near the eastern face of Mount Everest on the Tibetan side. All the hikers were brought to safety in a large-scale rescue operation that spanned several days in near-freezing conditions.

In Nepal, more than 50 people died due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rains.

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