All climbers at camps high up Everest airlifted to safety

By Douglas Busvine NEW DELHI (Reuters) – All of the climbers who had been stranded at camps high up Mount Everest by a huge earthquake and avalanches have been helicoptered to safety, mountaineers reported from base camp on Tuesday. Around half of the tents at Everest base camp were destroyed by an avalanche unleashed by Saturday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake, killing between 17 and 22 climbers, according to separate accounts. Canadian Nick Cienski said many of the returning climbers’ tent camps had been wiped out by the avalanche which, surging at speeds estimated at up to 300 km per hour, cut a swath through base camp, hurling gear, people and tents hundreds of feet. Danish climber Carsten Lillelund Pedersen said his team had been trekking on Saturday down from camp 2, which is at an altitude of 6,400 meters, when it was caught in a whiteout and had to turn back.
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