http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/world/asia/hikers-blizzard-nepal.html 2014-10-16 12:10:09 Stranded Hikers Await Rescue After Deadly Blizzard in Nepal Twenty-eight hikers have been rescued after a blizzard killed at least 20 people on one of Nepal’s most popular hiking routes. === KATMANDU, Nepal — As rescue workers struggled on Thursday to reach hikers who were overwhelmed by a sudden blizzard on the Annapurna Circuit, one of Nepal’s Army and police force began rescue operations at 6 a.m. in relatively good weather, said Baburam Bhandari, the chief district officer in Mustang, the area where the storm occurred. Officials gave no update of the death toll, which stood at 20 on Wednesday but seemed likely to climb rapidly in the coming days. Fourteen survivors — 12 Israelis and two hikers from Hong Kong — were airlifted to Katmandu by helicopter on Wednesday evening and were admitted to the army hospital there, many with broken limbs and suffering from severe frostbite, Mr. Bhandari said. Crews also rescued 14 hikers from Manang, a nearby district. Ten people — four Canadians, three Indians and three Nepalese — are still missing there, said Devendra Lamichhane, a local official. When the fierce storm bore down over the Thorong La pass early this week, many guides and hikers took shelter in the teahouses that provide food and lodging along the route. Narayan Bhandari, a Nepalese trekking guide, said that about 36 people were safe inside a lodge known as the High Camp, where they had sporadic phone service. Those who tried to proceed across the pass and down a steep, exposed path to the next major town would have faced the brunt of the storm, said Mr. Bhandari, who spoke by telephone to a fellow guide who had been in the area. He said groups who tried to cross the Thorong La pass on Monday or Tuesday, when the storm hit unexpectedly, were in extreme danger. “Some people did pass if they started early in the morning — if they were very young and very fit,” he said. “If they were very old people, perhaps they had problems.” He said colleagues had reported seeing many dead bodies. “Nobody expects this kind of storm at this time of year, in October,” he said. The descent from the pass to the nearby base of Muktinath is “very, very steep,” through an open, exposed area, and often takes several hours to complete, said David Ways, a trekker and travel writer who has hiked the route twice. “It’s the wind and the cold that kills up there. It’s perishing,” he said in a telephone interview from the Philippines. “What struck here is a freak blizzard,'’ he said. “They’re in an exposed area — there is no shelter whatsoever. That wind, that snow — it’s not a good scenario.” In snowy conditions, Mr. Ways said, trekking groups making their way across the pass would ordinarily either stop and wait for improvement or turn around. “It looks like what had happened is that they were stuck up there for two or three days and there was a break in the weather and they tried to go ahead,” he said. Basant B. Hamal, the secretary general of the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal, said that the organization sent two people by helicopter, one to Jomsom in Mustang District and one to Tilicho Lake in Manang District, on Thursday morning to help with the army-led rescue operations. Fearing the worst, friends and relatives of missing climbers reached out to each other via Facebook and Twitter. A “Our hearts and minds are on Annapurna, Nepal,” read the caption on a photo of snow-capped Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest peak.