Himalayan slide kills 18

IN one of the most deadly climbing incidents in the Himalayas in recent years, an avalanche last month killed 18 members of a French team attempting to scale Kang Guru in Nepal, a 22,903-foot peak near Annapurna.

The slide swept a base camp off the mountain, burying all seven French climbers and 11 Sherpas in their tents. Four other Sherpas survived.

The climbers had reached high base camp at 16,617 feet when a fierce snowstorm drove them back to low camp, at 13,779 feet. The experienced team, led by Himalayan veteran Daniel Stoltzenberg, sited the camp in a precarious spot, beneath slide-prone slopes of 35 to 40 degrees. It was “right in the middle of an avalanche zone,” rescuer Padam Ghale told the Nepali Times.

Joe Robinson