Avalanche at Nepal's Himlung Himal base camp kills 15 local expedition staff
Rescuers in Nepal have recovered 15 bodies from the Himlung Himal base camp after a cyclone-driven avalanche buried 16 local expedition workers under four metres of snow.
Recovery operation at Himlung Himal
Rescuers in Nepal retrieved eight more bodies on Thursday from the base camp of Himlung Himal, raising the death toll from a weekend avalanche to 15. The 7,126-metre peak sits in the Manang district near the border with Tibet, attracting climbers attempting their first 7,000-metre ascent. A team of 11 rescuers, including veteran mountain guides, dug through more than four metres of snow to reach tents buried when the avalanche struck on Sunday morning. Sixteen Nepali support staff, employed by two expedition companies, were setting up the camp at an altitude of approximately 4,900 metres ahead of the autumn climbing season. One worker remains unaccounted for as emergency teams continue searching the site.
The operation is taking place in extremely difficult and demanding conditions.
- Avalanche strikes base camp; two mountain guides found dead
- Rescuers retrieve two kitchen staff from the snow
- Search resumes after weather delays, recovering three bodies
- Eight bodies uncovered under four metres of snow, bringing toll to 15
Search efforts and victim identification
The recovery team found two mountain guides on Sunday immediately after the snow collapsed onto the base camp. Rescuers pulled two kitchen workers from the snow on Monday, followed by three additional victims on Tuesday once weather conditions permitted flights. Search efforts faced repeated interruptions earlier in the week because poor visibility in Kathmandu grounded transport helicopters. On Thursday, search teams led by Pasang Kaji Sherpa and Bikram Karki located the remaining eight bodies near the flattened camp structures. Local officials confirmed that helicopters began transporting the recovered bodies to nearby settlements and the capital.
The team discovered eight bodies today, bringing the number found at the site to fifteen.
- 2026-09-27
- 2 bodies
- 2026-09-28
- 2 bodies
- 2026-09-29
- 3 bodies
- 2026-10-01
- 8 bodies
Regional storm impacts and climbing season
The avalanche followed severe weather generated by a cyclone over the Bay of Bengal, which brought days of intense snowfall and torrential rain across the Himalayas. The broader weather system triggered flash floods and landslides that killed 31 people across Nepal and at least 56 in northern India. In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Relief Commissioner Hrishikesh Bhaskar Yashod reported rainfall of 66.5 mm, a 775% increase over the seasonal average of 7.6 mm. The storm blocked roads, downed power lines, and washed out bridges across Nepal, hindering emergency access to remote mountain valleys. Mountain tourism represents a vital economic pillar for Nepal, where authorities issued around 600 climbing permits to mountaineers from nearly 70 countries for the current season.
Context of recent Himalayan disasters
Foreign climbers had not yet arrived at the Himlung Himal base camp when the slope collapsed, leaving the casualties entirely among local guides and camp personnel. The death toll of 15 makes the incident the deadliest mountaineering event in Nepal since the 2014 Everest avalanche killed 16 people and the 2015 earthquake claimed 18 lives on the same mountain. Nepal is also continuing recovery operations following an August glacial break and landslide disaster that left over 1,400 people dead and thousands missing. Additional late-September rainfall triggered localized landslides that killed at least 14 people across the country. Expedition operators and guide associations noted that the search for the single missing worker would conclude soon due to minimal survival prospects.
