Nepal rescuers find bodies of five climbers killed last year

Rescuers in Nepal have found the bodies of five mountaineers, including three foreigners, killed in an avalanche last year near the Chinese border.

A local government official confirmed the discovery on Saturday.

Where were the missing Nepal climbers found?

Locals and rescue teams discovered the five bodies on Thursday near Yalung Ri peak, close to Nepal's border with Tibet. The climbers, two Nepalis and three foreigners, had been missing since last November. Local authorities are now working to recover the remains from the site.

"Five bodies, three foreigners and two Nepalis, who had been missing since last November, have been discovered," said Biswash Karki, chairman of Gaurishankar Rural Municipality. He identified the foreigners as an Italian-Canadian, a German and an Italian national. The avalanche struck the climbers on the lower flanks of the 5,630-metre Yalung Ri peak.

Why did it take so long to find the bodies?

Thick snow had covered the bodies since the climbers went missing, delaying their discovery for months. "Ever since they went missing, we had been deploying the army, police and local rescue teams to search for them, but thick snow had covered their bodies," Karki said. Search efforts continued through the winter before the bodies were finally spotted last Thursday.

When will the bodies be recovered?

A rescue helicopter was sent to the site on Friday but could not reach it due to bad weather, according to senior local police officer Manoj Kumar Lama. "Our rescue team will airlift the bodies once the weather clears," he told AFP. Recovery efforts remain on hold until conditions improve.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and welcomes hundreds of climbers and trekkers every year. According to the Himalayan Database, an expedition archive, more than 1,000 people have died on the country's peaks since 1950, with avalanches accounting for almost a third of those deaths.