UPDATE: Avalanche Dead ID'd
Eight of nine mountaineers killed early Sunday morning by an avalanche on Nepal's Manaslu (26,759 feet) have been identified by Nepal's Mountaineering Department Chief Balkrishan Ghimire (the AP has more on each climber here). They are:
• Marti Gasull, Spain
• Fabride Prieze, France
• Catherine Marie Andree Richard, France
• Ludovic Paul Nicholas Challeat, France
• Phillippe Lucien Bos, France
• Dawa Dorji, Nepal
• Christian Mittermeyer, Germany
• Alberto Magiano, Italy
A ninth is confirmed dead, but is taking longer to recover and won't be identified until his or her family has been notified.
A scaled-back search resumed today for the three remaining missing—French mountaineers Greg Costa and Rémy Lécluse and Canadian doctor Dominique Ouimet—though hopes are quickly fading that they'll be found alive, if at all. If they were swept up by the avalanche at approximately 4:45am Sunday, they'd now be buried for 65-plus hours. Experts usually give buried avalanche survivors a window of around 20 minutes before they'll die of hypothermia or, more likely, asphyxiation.
Search helicopters were grounded Monday afternoon over Manaslu, and the search is now being taken up by sherpas, who are using snow shovels, ice axes and bamboo sticks to search for the missing in the avalanche-affected area.
To read our original report about the deadly avalanche on Manaslu, click here.
At least 10 injured climbers were removed to area hospitals for treatment. The following photos of the rescue are from Alpine Ascents International, who was on the scene shortly after the avalanche struck.
The debris field left by the large avalanche.
A helicopter medevacs another injured climber.
Taking care of the injured.
Prepping more patients for medevac.