An avalanche swept down a slope of Mount Everest on Friday killing 12 Nepali mountaineering guides at the beginning of the main climbing season, a Tourism Ministry official said.
The avalanche, the deadliest in eight years, hit the most popular route to the mountain’s peak. Three Nepali guides were injured and up to five people were missing, said Dipendra Paudel at the Tourism Ministry’s mountaineering department.
It was the first major avalanche on Mount Everest this climbing season, when hundreds of foreign and Nepali climbers flock to the mountain to attempt to reach its 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) peak.
