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Two bodies have been recovered after an avalanche struck the base camp of Himlung Himal in Nepal’s Manang district, with several people still missing.
The avalanche hit the 7,126-metre (23,380-foot) peak on Sunday morning as Nepali guides and support workers prepared the camp and climbing route ahead of foreign mountaineers.
The exact number of missing people remained unclear. The Armed Police Force said eight people were unaccounted for after 12 members of a 22-person group made contact. The Nepal National Mountain Guide Association put the number of missing support workers at 14.
Rescuers initially struggled to reach the site because of heavy snowfall and poor weather. A team of experienced mountain guides was later flown from Kathmandu and recovered two bodies.
Search operations were suspended overnight because of darkness and difficult conditions and were due to resume Monday.
The Himlung Himal region, near Nepal’s border with Tibet, has experienced several days of heavy snowfall, raising avalanche risks across the country’s mountain districts.
Heavy snow also forced climbers to abandon expeditions on Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest mountain, while trekking in the Dhaulagiri range was suspended.
The latest deaths came nearly two months after an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan killed 10 climbers, including six Nepalis and British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja.
Nepal has also been dealing with severe weather-related disasters. More than 1,400 people have reportedly died and thousands remain missing following a glacier-linked landslide and flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border in August.