2 U.S. Climbers Die in Himalayas : Avalanche on Nepal-Tibet Peak Also Kills Sherpa Guide

An avalanche on the world’s seventh-highest peak killed two Americans and a Sherpa guide who were climbing the mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border, the Tourism Ministry said today.

Two others escaped the avalanche, said Dan McConnell, a spokesman for the expedition based in Seattle.

Dr. Charles Schertz, 35, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Nancy Jackson of Federal Way, Wash., and Sherpa Nima Wanchu, 41, were found buried in the snow March 27 by other team members of the American Manaslu Expedition, according to McConnell and the Tourism Ministry, which serves as a clearinghouse for Himalayan climbs.

Nepalese officials said Jackson’s passport gave her age as 43, but McConnell said his biographical materials listed her as 34.

The accident occurred at the 15,510-foot level of Mt. Manaslu, a 26,775-foot mountain in the Himalayan range, McConnell said.

Another climber, Steve Steckmyer, 39, of Seattle, escaped the direct path of the avalanche, while another Sherpa was partly buried but pulled himself out. Steckmyer stayed behind to look for his teammates while the Sherpa descended to get help and ran into the other climbers, who were coming up from the base camp with gear, McConnell said.

News of the deaths was delayed because of poor communications. The remaining members of the 12-person team will return home after the bodies are cremated at a monastery near Manaslu.

“We are shocked and shattered by the loss of our good friends, Nancy, Charlie and Nima Wanchu in this tragic accident,” team leader Don Goodman said in the news release.

Jackson, an environmental engineer, climbed Mt. Rainier more than 50 times as a guide during the 1980s and reached the summits of Mt. McKinley in Alaska and Aconcagua in Argentina.

Schertz, a physician, was one of two climbing doctors on the expedition. He was a member of the 1988 Northwest American Everest Expedition and part of the first American ascent of Cho Oyu in the Himalayas in 1986.