With one survivor describing the sudden avalanches that swept away hikers in Nepal "like walking into a death trap," comes word that two Canadians feared dead in the snow slides have been accounted for.
Family members had not heard from Marc Voyer and his girlfriend Rose Maninang after blizzards touched off a series of avalanches in the Himalayas, killing 29 trekkers. But Rose's sister has contacted CTV News to say the pair is safe.
The Toronto-area couple has been travelling through Asia since March and had registered to hike in the area where the avalanche occurred. Rose's sister says it turns out the couple passed through the area five days before the storm but were not in the area when the avalanches hit.
At least 29 people were killed in the avalanches that struck Wednesday at the height of the trekking season. Four of those killed were Canadians, including Jan Rooks, a nurse at B.C. Children's Hospital.
She was caught in the avalanche with her husband Grant Tomlinson and two friends. Tomlinson survived and spoke with CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer in Nepal Friday, describing a series of three avalanches his group walked through. He said it was during the second avalanche that his wife was swept away.
"I started looking for Jan all over the place, poking my pole, and we stayed there for about three-quarters of an hour,” Tomlinson said. “And it was just hopeless. She was just gone.”
The snowstorm caught the trekkers off-guard, since the skies over northern Nepal looked clear earlier in the week. But the weather in the high-altitude mountains shifted suddenly, bringing in a blizzard that set off a series of avalanches along the Himalayan trekking routes.
Tomlinson’s group hiked four hours to get out of a danger zone, finding their way to a hut. Their rescue didn’t come for two days.
Paul Cech, another member of the group, recounted his experience.
"I don't remember really getting afraid until Grant started calling for Jan. And she was gone,” Cech said. “And then the fear was, am I ever going to see my friend again?"
Tomlinson said that had the group been on the other side of the valley, they might have been able to receive better information on the shifting weather and about the storm that was beginning to storm.
"What we were walking into was a death trap," he said.
Several other Canadians are still unaccounted for, including 29-year-old Genevieve Adam from Quebec City and 21-year-old Sierra Rowe from Victoria, B.C.
Two Ottawa-area women, Virginia Schwartz and her companion Jane Van Criekingen, were heard from on Thursday and are safe. They had been “totally oblivious” to the catastrophe as they trekked in the region, Schwartz’s brother told Canada AM Thursday.
Helicopters rescued 40 trekkers Friday off the popular Annapurna circuit trail, a 220-kilometre trail that travels across Mount Annapurna, the 10th highest mountain in the world.
Rescuers have also received information about another 50 people who are safe but stranded in a mountain village.
Rescue workers were able to expand their search area Friday after the weather improved, and are now looking for more people who may have taken took shelter in lodges and huts along the trails.
With a report by CTV’s Janis Mackey Frayer in Kathmandu
