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Washington climbing companies: Everest teams helicoptered down to base camp

The Columbian
Published: April 26, 2015, 5:00pm

SEATTLE — At least some of the Washington-based mountaineering companies with expeditions on Mount Everest say their teams have been evacuated by helicopter down to base camp from higher elevations, following the devastating Nepal earthquake and an ensuing avalanche near the world’s highest peak.

Rainier Mountaineering Inc., Alpine Ascents International and Madison Mountaineering all had climbers stuck above an icefall following the avalanche, which struck part of the mountaineering base camp down below, killing 18 people and injuring more than 60. The icefall remained too dangerous to descend.

Rainier Mountaineering guide Dave Hahn wrote online Monday that about 180 climbers from around the world needed to be evacuated by helicopter. He described several small helicopters making repeat trips to ferry climbers to base camp, where they found a destruction they could scarcely have imagined.

Saturday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 4,000 people in the Himalayan nation. The subsequent avalanche on Everest buried part of the base camp crowded with climbers preparing to summit.

“Now back down to earth . we understand just how lucky we’ve been and we are sad beyond words to learn how unlucky others have been,” Hahn wrote on the Ashford-based company’s website.

Ashford-based International Mountain Guides said Monday that it took 32 flights to get its team of 25 climbers and 33 Sherpas down to base camp. Eric Simonson wrote on the company’s website that they would take a day to rest and then get packed up and organized to leave the mountain.

He wrote that “everyone is safe on our team, we have sufficient food and fuel, and we intend to be thoughtful and considered with our withdrawal from the mountain, proceeding with caution rather than rushing into an uncontrolled situation.”

Madison Mountaineering and Alpine Ascents International, both based in Seattle, also reported Monday that its climbing team had arrived at base camp.

Several companies said those Everest climbs were the only ones scheduled this year.

“The events of the last 2 days are very hard to put into words. We are incredibly fortunate to be here, and are all relieved to be down,” the team from Alpine Ascents International wrote on its website Monday. Its Sherpa teams are returning to their villages to be with their families and assess the damage to their homes.

Meanwhile, the climbing team said it planned to stay at base camp while working over the next week to get climbers home.

“With Kathmandu, and villages down valley in chaos, the best place for us right now is in base camp,” Alpine Ascents wrote. The team also said it would work in coming weeks and months to help rebuild in the Sherpa villages.

“Climbing Everest seems pretty trivial compared to the destruction, and loss of life that has affected this amazing region,” the post from Alpine Ascents said.

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