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A local government official said Saturday that rescuers in Nepal have recovered the bodies of five mountaineers, three of them foreign nationals, who died in an avalanche last year near the border with China.
"Five bodies, three foreigners and two Nepalis, who had been missing since last November, have been discovered," said Biswash Karki, chairperson of Gaurishankar Rural Municipality, a local administrative body in Nepal.
The foreigners were an Italian-Canadian, a German, and an Italian. The avalanche hit the climbers on the lower flanks of the 5,630-meter (18,471-foot) Yalung Ri peak, near Nepal's border with Tibet.
Locals and rescuers discovered the bodies on Thursday, Karki said, adding that the local authority was working to recover them.
"Ever since they went missing, we had been deploying the army, police and local rescue teams to search for them, but thick snow had covered their bodies," the official said.
Senior local police officer Manoj Kumar Lama said a rescue helicopter was sent to the area on Friday, but "due to bad weather, our team has not been able to reach the spot. Our rescue team will airlift the bodies once the weather clears," he stated.
Home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, Nepal welcomes hundreds of climbers and trekkers every year.
According to the Himalayan Database, an expedition archive, more than 1,000 people have died on peaks since 1950, with avalanches killing almost a third of them.
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