A Finnish climber and a Nepalese guide are missing after falling while descending Mount Annapurna, one of the world's most challenging peaks, expedition organisers said today.
Witnesses saw Samuli Mansikka and Pemba Sherpa slip and fall on their way down from the top of the 8,091-metre mountain in the Nepalese Himalayas yesterday.
Temba Tsering Sherpa of expedition organisers Dreamers Destination said a helicopter had been sent after fellow climbers who reached the summit along with the two men saw them fall and raised the alarm.
"The two were walking ahead of the team when they slipped and fell at an altitude of about 7,000 metres," Sherpa said, adding that poor conditions were hampering rescue efforts.
The Nepalese tourism department confirmed the men had gone missing.
Annapurna is both technically difficult and avalanche- prone and has a much higher death rate among climbers than Everest, the world's highest peak.
The 36-year-old Finn, an experienced mountaineer, had climbed the mountain solo and without bottled oxygen. He was descending with the 35-year-old guide, who was working for another team.
Every year hundreds of people from around the world travel to the Nepal Himalayas for the brief spring climbing season, when conditions are at their best.
In April last year an avalanche killed 16 Nepalese guides in the deadliest-ever accident on Mount Everest, spurring an unprecedented shutdown of the 8,848-metre-tall mountain.
Barely six months later, a massive snowstorm struck the popular Annapurna circuit at the height of the trekking season, claiming 43 lives and capping a grim year for the tourism-dependent Himalayan nation.
