Hundreds of Everest climbers await choppers as supplies run low

As many as 200 climbers were still stranded on the side of Mount Everest and running low on food and heat early Monday following a devastating earthquake that triggered deadly avalanches, and officials were preparing to evacuating them by helicopter.

 

The climbers are mostly at Camp 2, some 21,000 feet above sea level, and cut off from base camp by boulders, blocks of ice and massive drifts sent down the world’s tallest mountain by a series following Saturday’s magnitude 7.8-earthquake and a series of aftershocks. Helicopter rescues were set to begin Monday, Zimba Zangbu Sherpa, immediate past president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told Bloomberg News in a Monday phone interview. At least 19 people, including a Google executive and a New Jersey medical worker, have already died.

 

Madison Mountaineering, a Seattle-based company that leads Everest expeditions, said on its website that the climbers in Camp 2 were safe and would attempt to reach Camp 1 for an air evacuation. They cannot get from Camp 1 to base camp because the passageway through the Khumbu Icefall is impassable, according to Madison officials. The group is running low on food and fuel for warmth, he said.

 

Read More: Trapped at 20,000 feet: Hundreds of Everest climbers await choppers as supplies run low | Fox News