Big Mountain Skiers Caught In Avalanche on Manaslu – Glen Plake, Alive, Rémy Lécluse & Greg Costa Still Missing
Manaslu, the 8th highest peak in the world and the site of yesterdays tragedy Image:: Wikipedia Commons
Mountainwatch | Alex Horvath
11 climbers are feared dead and as many as 38 are missing after a large serac fall triggered an avalanche on Mt Manaslu in Nepal.
Well known ski mountaineers Glen Plake, Rémy Lécluse and Greg Costa were all in the area as part of an expedition to break a world record by managing to ski from the summit of Manaslu without oxygen. Mt Manaslu is the eighth highest mountain in the world, and is located in the Mansiri Himal part of the Nepalese Himalayas.
The group had planned to make their attempt on the summit and make their ski descent around the 20 – 25 September. The skiers and climbers were all resting in their tents at camp III around 4:30 am local time when the first warning of the incoming avalanche was noticed as a strong gust of wind. Glen Plake reports via EpicTV that he heard the wind and quickly realised that it was in fact an avalanche. Glen was swept approximately 300 m down over a serac and came to rest still in his sleeping bag. Due to storm snow loading over the preceding days all climbers had opted to sleep wearing avalanche transceivers and Glen quickly began to search for his missing companions.
Unfortunately Glen was unable to locate Remy or Greg and at this stage it seems that they are still missing. Reports are filtering in across various news sources and they seem to indicate that most of the dead are from a French climbing team.
According to a report from the AFP approximately 13 injured climbers were evacuated via helicopter to Kathmandu for treatment. Rescue efforts are continuing and are currently being hampered by difficult access and bad weather. If it is confirmed that there are 11 or more dead, this may end up as one of the worst Himalayan tragedies in recent history.
At this stage we are keeping both Greg and Rémy in our thoughts and hoping that they are safe. I will try to update this post as more information becomes available.
You can read more about the expedition here
