Survivors of Mount Everest's deadliest avalanche recalled scenes of panic and chaos, describing today how they dug through snow with their hands and ice axes in hopes of finding their friends alive.
Just minutes before the avalanche hit on Friday, about 60 Sherpa guides had been backed up along the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, the edge of a slow-moving glacier known to calve and crack without warning.
They heard the sickening boom of ice breaking above, and then the roar of it coming down around them.
As details of the tragedy trickle down the mountain, Nepal's tight-knit climbing community has been left reeling and struggling to make sense of an accident that they say could have happened to any one of them, at any time.
"We were sweating, panting, digging for our friends," survivor Cheddar Sherpa said, standing beside his friend's body at the Sherpa monastery in Katmandu, Nepal's capital.
As he helped carry down the injured, he had no idea who might still be alive. "We were terrified," he said.
At least 13 people were killed, and another three are still missing, though there is almost no hope of finding them alive.
Climbing has been halted amid a search operation to locate bodies buried under snow, but the operation was suspended today afternoon due to bad weather, and it was unclear whether it would resume tomorrow, Tourism Ministry official Mohan Sapkota said.
The expeditions ferrying foreigners to Everest's peak said they would continue the climbs, though they're not sure when or how, with some guides now injured or gone.
All of the victims were from Nepal's ethnic Sherpa community, which relies heavily on the country's alpine trekking and climbing industry, with many making a living as climbing guides and others catering to foreign visitors by providing restaurants, equipment or transportation.
At the time of the avalanche, according to Cheddar Sherpa, dozens of Sherpa climbers were carrying tents and equipment to higher elevations in preparation for their foreign clients to ascend next month, when weather conditions are best.
