Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday

Tibetan firefighters guided about 350 trekkers to safety who were stranded by a blizzard, making contact with another 200.

BEIJING — Rescuers were helping hundreds of hikers trapped by heavy snow at tourist campsites on a slope of Mount Everest in Tibet, Chinese state media said.

About 350 hikers had reached a meeting point in Tingri country and rescuers were in contact with another 200, state broadcaster CCTV said late Sunday. There was no immediate update on rescue efforts on Monday.

The hikers were trapped at an elevation of more than 4,900 metres (16,000 feet), according to an earlier report from Jimu News, a Chinese online site. Mount Everest is about 8,850 metres (29,000 feet) tall.

A hiker who rushed to descend before snow blocked the way told Jimu News that others still on the mountain told him the snow was 1 metre (3 feet) deep and had crushed tents.

Hundreds of rescuers headed up the mountain Sunday to clear paths so that trapped people could come down, the Jimu report said. A video shot by a villager showed a long line of people with horses and oxen moving up a winding path in the snow.

The snowstorm struck during a weeklong national holiday in China, when many travel at home and abroad.

In another mountainous region in western China, one hiker died of hypothermia and altitude sickness and 137 others were evacuated in the north part of Qinghai province, CCTV said Monday.

The search in an area in Menyuan county with an average altitude of more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) was complicated by the terrain, unpredictable weather and continuous snowfall, a CCTV online report said.

Mount Everest, known as Mount Qomolangma in Chinese, straddles the border between China and Nepal, where recent heavy rains have left more than 40 people dead.

Climbers attempt to scale the world’s tallest peak from base camps in both countries. The base camp for climbers is separate from the tourist camp where hikers were trapped by the snowfall.

A strong earthquake killed at least 126 people in the same area in January.

The Chinese side of Everest is in Tibet, a remote western region where the government has cracked down harshly on dissent and poured in funds for economic development including roads and tourism.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled during a failed uprising in 1959 and lives in India, where some Tibetans have set up a government in exile.

The Associated Press