Nepal Avalanche Death Toll Reaches 15 as Rescue Operation Nears End at Himlung Base Camp

Rescue teams in central Nepal have now recovered the bodies of 15 expedition workers who were killed when a powerful avalanche tore through a mountain base camp earlier this week, according to the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA). The disaster, which struck the base camp of Himlung Himal in the Manang district, ranks among the deadliest mountaineering accidents the country has witnessed in recent years.

Eight additional bodies were retrieved on Thursday from the debris field left behind by the avalanche, which barreled through the camp in the early hours of Sunday. The camp sits at the foot of the 7,126-metre (23,345-foot) Himlung peak, a mountain located close to Nepal's northern border with China.

Tul Singh Gurung, president of the NNMGA, confirmed the updated death toll to Reuters. He said the remains recovered on Thursday were expected to be flown by helicopter to Kathmandu, the capital, where grieving relatives had gathered at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Images from the hospital showed family members and friends reacting with visible anguish as the bodies of two victims arrived earlier in the week.

The victims were part of a support crew preparing the route for future climbing expeditions. At the time of the avalanche, Nepali workers were engaged in the physically demanding tasks of pitching tents and fixing ropes along the mountain, groundwork that typically precedes the arrival of paying foreign clients. According to Gurung, no international climbers had yet reached the site when the snowslide hit.

The recovery effort has been painstaking and dangerous. A team of eleven rescuers, including highly experienced guides, has been working at the site, digging through snow that in places exceeded four metres (14 feet) in depth and had completely buried the camp's tents. The operation has proceeded body by body over several days: two mountain guides were found on Sunday, the day of the disaster; two kitchen staff members were pulled from the snow on Monday; another three bodies were recovered on Tuesday; and the remaining eight were located on Thursday.

Gurung indicated that the rescue mission is likely to conclude soon, as hopes of finding the one worker still unaccounted for have faded. "The bodies that were recovered today are expected to be brought by a helicopter to Kathmandu," he told Reuters, adding that the chances of locating the final missing worker were slim.

Details of the disaster emerged gradually in the days after the avalanche. On September 27, the NNMGA reported that 14 kitchen staff members were unaccounted for and that two climbing guides had been found dead. Officials from the Expedition Operators Association Nepal and the Department of Tourism, including director general Ram Krishna Lamichhane, confirmed through local media that the avalanche had buried the base camp and left climbers and support staff missing.

The tragedy has renewed attention on the risks borne by Nepal's mountain workers, who often face hazardous conditions while setting up camps and routes for expeditions that generate substantial revenue for the country. Home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks, including Everest, Nepal's economy depends heavily on mountaineering and trekking tourism, a sector that employs thousands of guides, porters and kitchen staff each season.

Himlung Himal is a popular objective for mountaineers seeking to gain experience on 7,000-metre peaks before attempting loftier challenges. Its base camp, positioned in a remote stretch of the Annapurna region, is exposed to the same snow and weather hazards that make Himalayan climbing inherently unpredictable.

The avalanche is one of the worst mountaineering disasters in Nepal in roughly a decade. In 2014, an avalanche on Mount Everest claimed the lives of 16 people, and in 2015 an earthquake triggered a separate avalanche on the same mountain that killed 18. Those events, like the Himlung tragedy, involved Sherpa guides and support workers rather than foreign clients, highlighting the disproportionate risks carried by local crews.

The disaster also comes amid an already grim period for Nepal. Authorities are still searching for bodies from catastrophic floods caused by a glacial lake outburst on August 26, which killed more than 1,400 people and left over 5,000 missing. In addition, heavy rainfall since last Thursday has triggered further flooding and landslides across the country, with the national disaster agency reporting at least 21 additional deaths.

The cumulative toll has strained rescue services and drawn attention to the vulnerability of Nepal's mountainous terrain to both seismic activity and extreme weather. Scientists have long warned that climate change is altering snowpack and glacier stability in the Himalayas, potentially increasing the frequency of avalanches and glacial lake outburst floods.

For the families of the Himlung victims, the conclusion of the recovery operation will bring a measure of closure but also difficult questions about safety protocols at high-altitude work sites. The NNMGA and other mountaineering bodies have previously called for stronger insurance, training and early-warning systems for workers who spend months at altitude preparing routes.

As the helicopter flights bring the last of the recovered bodies down to Kathmandu, the focus will shift toward identifying the deceased, supporting their families and assessing how a routine pre-expedition setup turned into one of the deadliest days in the recent history of Nepali mountaineering.