Mount Everest Avalanche: Rescue Operations Resume to Search Missing Sherpa Guides

Search operation resumed Saturday for four Nepalese guides who were buried in an avalanche at Mount Everest that killed 12, Friday.

Bodies of seven Sherpa guides were handed over to the families in the Everest area and five other bodies were brought to Kathmandu, reports the Associated Press.

Four survivors are under treatment in the intensive care units of several Kathmandu hospitals. All of them are admitted for broken ribs, fractured limbs, punctured lungs and skin abrasions, according to Dr. C.R. Pandey from Grande Hospital. Other survivors with less serious injuries were treated at the Everest base camp.

The incident happened ahead of the peak climbing season. Around hundreds of climbers, guides and support crew were busy with preparations at the base camp at Everest. The summit climbs are expected to begin early next month. The Sherpa guides had gone to set up ropes for climbers at 'Camp 2,' Friday morning, officials said.

Climbers decided to halt the preparations for four days and some even planned to leave the summit while the rest said they will talk to their guides and make a decision.

"I sat and counted 13 helicopter lifts - 12 were dead bodies flying overhead suspended by a long line from a helicopter," Tim Rippel of Peak Freaks Expeditions wrote in a blog. "Everyone is shaken here at Base Camp. Some climbers are packing up and calling it quits, they want nothing to do with this. Reality has set in."

Seven NBC staff who were on the mountain to film a jump of American wing suit flier Joby Ogwyn for the Discovery Channel's 'Everest Jump Live', witnessed the fateful incident.

"The avalanche last night on Mount Everest is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with those who are lost and with their families. The immediate priority for Joby and the team is to assist the search and rescue efforts in any way possible," Discovery Channel officials said in a statement.

A representative for NBC and the Discovery Channel said that all their employees were safe and unharmed. "Tragically, 13 Nepalese sherpas from a number of expedition companies who prepare the mountain each year for climbing season lost their lives, and the rescue mission continues," the rep said, reports the New York Daily News.

The Mount Everest avalanche incident is the single deadliest disaster on the world's highest peak. The previous fatal accident occurred in 1996, when eight climbers were killed after a two-day storm.

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