Hundreds of trekkers escape from blizzard-struck Mount Everest in Tibet
By Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of Mount Everest in Tibet have been guided to safety by rescuers, Chinese state media reported, as unusually heavy snow and rainfall pummelled the Himalayas.
Some 350 trekkers had reached the small township of Qudang, while contact with the remaining 200-plus trekkers had been made, CCTV reported on Sunday. Its Monday evening news bulletin did not provide any updates.
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Tibet media released a video showing trekkers being welcomed with hot soup in a communal hall, before boarding busses that took them away from the area.
Visitors to the remote valley of Karma, which leads to the eastern Kangshung face of Everest, were in the hundreds this week, taking advantage of an eight-day National Day holiday in China.
(REUTERS/Purnima Shrestha/File Photo)
"It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk," said Chen Geshuang, who was part of an 18-strong trekking team that made it to Qudang.
"The weather this year is not normal. The guide said he had never encountered such weather in October. And it happened all too suddenly."
Chen's party descended from the mountains on Sunday and was greeted with sweet tea by villagers after enduring a harrowing evening of heavy snowfall combined with thunder and lightning.
Hundreds of local villagers and rescue teams had been deployed to help remove snow blocking access to the area, where nearly 1,000 people had been trapped, according to an earlier report by state-backed Jimu News.
The remaining trekkers will arrive in Qudang in stages under the assistance of rescuers organised by the local government, CCTV reported.
The CCTV report did not say if local guides and support staff of the trekking parties had been accounted for.
'Hardly slept'
Snowfall in the valley, which lies at an elevation averaging 4,200 metres (13,800 feet), began on Friday evening and persisted throughout Saturday.
"It was raining and snowing every day, and we did not see Everest at all," said Eric Wen, who survived the ordeal.
A screen capture from video shows trekkers leaving their campsite, as unusually heavy snow and rainfall pummeled the Himalayas, in the Tibet Region, China, October 5, 2025. Geshuang Chen/Handout via REUTERS
His trekking party of 18 had decided on Saturday night to make their way back from their fifth and final campsite, concerned by the continuous snowfall.
"We only had a few tents. More than 10 of us were in the large tent and hardly slept," Wen told Reuters on Monday.
Wen said his group had to clear the snow every 10 minutes.
"Otherwise our tents would have collapsed," he said.
Two men and a woman in the group suffered hypothermia when the temperature slipped below freezing, even though they were sufficiently attired, Wen said.
But his expedition party emerged largely unscathed, including eight other expedition guides and several others who tended the yaks transporting their equipment and kit.
A woman wearing a raincoat wade through a flooded street along the bank of overflowing Bagmati River following heavy rains, in Kathmandu, Nepal, October 4, 2025. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
North face
Karma valley, first explored by Western travellers a century ago, is a relatively pristine part of the Everest region. Unlike the peak's arid north face, it boasts lush vegetation and untouched alpine forests, fed by meltwaters from the Kangshung glacier at the foot of the world's highest mountain.
It was unclear if trekkers near the north face, which draws large numbers of tourists due to its easy access by paved road, had been affected.
October is a peak season, when skies usually clear at the end of the Indian monsoon.
A man carries a bag as he wades through a flooded street along the bank of overflowing Bagmati River following heavy rains, in Kathmandu, Nepal, October 4, 2025. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
To the south of Tibet in Nepal, heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods that have blocked roads, washed away bridges and killed at least 50 people since Friday.
Thirty-seven people died in separate landslides in the eastern Ilam district bordering India.
A South Korean trekker died in Nepal and his body was recovered by a rescue helicopter on Monday, said Tulsi Gurung, president of Nepal National Mountain Guides Association. His guide was rescued.
The hiker, whose name was not given, climbed the 6,476 metres (21,246 feet) Mera Peak on Saturday.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing, Casey Hall in Shanghai, Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong and Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Louise Heavens, Ros Russell, Saad Sayeed and Chizu Nomiyama)
Thumbnail courtesy of Geshuang Chen/Handout via REUTERS.