Intrepid Adventurers

"A huge avalanche swept through camp 3 at 4:45 a.m. on Manaslu, catching lots of people in their sleeping bags, many dead and injured.  Luckily our team is fine, and helped with the rescue.  Greg Hill, skier/mountaineer, from Revelstoke, B.C.

There were, in fact, a total of 231 climbers representing various national groups on the slopes of Mount Manaslu, with a peak of 8,156 metres in Nepal which boasts it is home to eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world.  Ten climbers were killed as a result of the deadly avalanche and six other climbers are missing.  Most of the dead are of French origin.

A former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, Ang Tshering Sherpa, informed the media that other victims were from Italy, Germany and Spain.  And one Canadian climber, a surgeon from Quebec who was an experienced climber, intent on combining his two passions; mountain climbing and raising funds for his hospital. 

Dominique Ouimet, a cardiologist with Saint-Jerome regional hospital was involved in fundraising to enable the hospital to purchase specialized equipment for the cardiology department.  Those missing including Dr. Ouimet are five French nationals and an Italian climber.  The search was called off due to deteriorating weather conditions and nightfall, last night.

Weather conditions closed in quickly, hampering search and rescue attempts. During the fall climbing season on the mountain weather is far more unpredictable than throughout the spring climbing season when weather patterns tend to be more stable.  Dr. Ouimet had already climbed a number of the world's high peaks.  On this attempt he was intent on beating his 6,960 metre altitude record.

"I was afraid.  I was so confused that I can't say how far I was swept away or how many people were there in the camp at the time of the avalanche.  I had luck.  I did not go far enough and was (left) outside ... not buried under snow", said German Climber Andreas Reitero who was asleep at the 7,000 metre-level at his camp when he suddenly heard a "big sound".

Mountaineers who have this type of extreme mountain climbing in their blood usually use such climbs as experience precursors to climbing Mount Everest which beckons these extreme adventurers as the world's most famous and one of its most difficult climbing experiences, along with K2, where many lives have been lost to the ambition to stand victorious on those summits.

The Nepalese guides refer to Mount Manaslu as the "killer mountain".  Helicopters are being used in that remote, inaccessible area to search for the missing.  Cloud and fog have been complicating rescue efforts.