Five Bodies Found at Last Year's Nepal Avalanche Site

Nepalese rescue workers spotted five bodies at the site where the same number of climbers went missing last year, local officials said on Saturday.

Three foreign climbers, a Canadian of Italian descent, an Italian and a German, along with two Nepalese, have been missing since last November, when they were struck by an avalanche on the Yalung Ri mountain.

Two other climbers, an Italian and a Frenchman, died at the base camp of the 5,630m-high mountain in Dolakha District, which borders the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet.

Thabindra Kumar Kafle, from the village of Gaurishankar, where the mountain is located, said the bodies were spotted on Friday by workers who had been sent to search the area by a tour company.

"We are trying to reach the site where the bodies were seen but are stuck here due to bad weather", said Phurba Tenjing Sherpa of Dreamers' Destination, the company that was guiding the foreign climbers.

"The bodies may have come out after the snow melted", he added. However, it was not immediately clear whether the bodies were those of the climbers who went missing on Yalung Ri last year.

The mountain is located in the Rolwaling Valley in northeastern Nepal. The climbing routes there pass through rocky, icy and snow-covered terrain.

(Reuters, luc)