KATHMANDU: Two European climbers have been swept away by an avalanche while a veteran Japanese mountaineer has plunged to his death in a separate tragedy in the Himalayas, officials said yesterday.
A European team of elite mountaineers were 100 metres shy of summiting the world’s 14th-highest peak — China’s 8,027-metre (26,335-foot) Shisha Pangma peak — when Wednesday’s avalanche hit.
“Two climbers — one German, the other Italian — were swept away in an avalanche on Shisha Pangma,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
Mountaineering equipment company Dynafit, which sponsored the team, named the two dead men as Italian Andrea Zambaldi, 32, and German Sebastian Haag, 35.
In a separate accident, Japanese climber Yoshimasa Sasaki fell to his death on Friday when he slipped during an ascent of Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest peak, located in northwest Nepal, according to a tourism ministry statement. The 59-year-old, an experienced mountaineer, lost his footing at 7,300 metres after summiting the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) peak.
“Rescuers are working to recover the body... (which) will be brought to Kathmandu as soon as possible,” the tourism ministry said. Dynafit said the force of the Shisha Pangma avalanche threw the two victims, along with German teammate Martin Maier, across steep glaciers, dragging them down for around 600 metres before landing them in an inaccessible section of the mountain.
Their teammates attempted a rescue but were forced to turn around because they could not reach the victims, the company said. “Sebastian and Andrea disappeared with the avalanche and their bodies could not be found.” Maier, who miraculously survived the accident, was receiving medical attention.AFP
