Sri Lanka News

2000 tourists trapped in slopes in the Himalayas

bout 2000 foreign hikers have been trapped in bad weather in the village of Lukla on the slopes of a mountain near Mount Everest in a remote corner of Nepal for the past four days, officials say. A brief respite on Sunday allowed 18 hikers to be rescued before skies clouded over again.

Lukla, a popular starting point for people on their way to the world's tallest peak, is located in northeast Nepal. It lies at a height of 2800 metres (9186 feet) and is 125 km northeast of the Nepali capital.

 

Tens of thousands of trekkers and climbers visit the Solukhumbu region in northeast Nepal, home to Mount Everest, every year. Many start and end their trek from the windswept resort where a small airstrip is carved into the rugged mountainside.

While around 500 people have managed to charter helicopters from nearby villages and some have opted for the five-day trek to Jiri - the nearest roadhead - more two thousand remain stuck in the small Himalayan hamlet.

Conditions in the village are said to be overcrowded and expensive, with tourists having to shelter in tents on the airstrip and sleep in the dining rooms of lodges. There were also concerns that food supplies could run low if, as expected, it takes several days to get the trekkers back to Kathmandu.

The Nepalese Army has been deployed to try to help with it's limited fleet of MI-16 helicopters - one is thought to be operational and can only carry 16 passengers - though poor visibility has also hampered these efforts.

The airport and the perilous route over the Himalayas to Kathmandu has been the scene of several fatal accidents involving small two-engined aircraft, which have often crashed in poor visibility with the loss of over 50 lives since 2008.