Mount Everest

Rescued trekkers reach China’s Qudang township while 200 others still face treacherous Everest conditions awaiting help.

Rescuers have guided more than 350 people to safety after they were stranded by blizzard-like conditions on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.

In total, more than 500 people were caught by surprise when unusually heavy snow and rainfall lashed them on the way in the Tingri region of Tibet, one of the main routes to ascend the world’s tallest mountain.

Those rescued on Sunday were taken to the small township of Qudang, on the Tibetan side of the peak, CCTV reported.

Some 200 trekkers who remained stranded in treacherous conditions as of Sunday were due to arrive in Qudang in stages under the guidance and assistance of rescuers organised by the local government, CCTV reported.

The CCTV report did not indicate whether local guides and support staff accompanying the trekking parties had been accounted for. It was also unclear if trekkers near the north face of Everest, also in Tibet, had been affected or not.

Heavy snowfall in the valley, which lies at an elevation averaging 4,200 metres (13,800 feet), began on Friday evening and persisted throughout Saturday.

Ticket sales and entry to the entire Everest Scenic Area were suspended from late Saturday, according to notices on the official WeChat accounts of the local Tingri County Tourism Company.

“It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk,” said Chen Geshuang, who was part of an 18-strong trekking team that made it to Qudang.

“The weather this year is not normal. The guide said he had never encountered such weather in October. And it happened all too suddenly,” Chen told the Reuters news agency.

In neighbouring Nepal, Sherpa communities have been adapting to increasingly unpredictable conditions as climate change contributes to more frequent and dramatic climate shifts in the Himalayas, posing risks to climbers and the Sherpa communities who work there.

In a situation update shared on Sunday, Nepal’s Tourism Board said that search and rescue operations were ongoing after the weather “improved significantly” across Nepal, with “clear skies in Kathmandu and many other parts of Nepal”.

The update came after heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods across Nepal, killing at least 47 people since Friday.

Thirty-five people died in separate landslides in the eastern Ilam district bordering India. Nine people were reported missing after being swept away by floodwaters, and three others were killed in lightning strikes elsewhere in the country.

The floods and landslides in the mountainous regions come as South Asian countries continue to battle ongoing floods, including in Pakistan, where some four million people have been affected.

Andrzej Bargiel, braving heavy snowfall, glided down the world’s highest mountain on his third attempt.

Poland’s Andrzej Bargiel has become the first climber to ski down the world’s highest mountain without supplemental oxygen, his team and expedition organiser say.

Bargiel glided down Mount Everest’s snowy slopes after reaching the summit of the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) mountain on Monday.

“I am on top of the highest mountain in the world, and I’m going to descend it on skis,” Bargiel said in a video taken before his descent and posted on Instagram early on Thursday.

Everest has seen a handful of ski descents but never a continuous downhill without additional oxygen.

Pierwszy w historii zjazd na nartach ze szczytu Mount Everestu bez użycia dodatkowego tlenu ⛷️🏔️

Dziękuję wszystkim za trzymanie kciuków! 🙌

Ogromne podziękowania dla teamu Seven Summit Treks, Chang Dawa, Speed Dawa – bez Was ten sukces nie byłby możliwy 🙏

Serdecznie… pic.twitter.com/udBliwDhZy

— Andrzej Bargiel (@JedrekBargiel) September 25, 2025

In 2000, Slovenian Davorin Karnicar made the first full ski descent from Everest’s summit to base camp using bottled oxygen.

Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, which organised the latest expedition, said Bargiel skied down to Camp 2, spent a night and then reached the base camp on skis the next day.

“This was extremely challenging, and no one had done it before,” Sherpa told the AFP news agency.

Heavy snowfall forced Bargiel to spend 16 hours above 8,000 metres (26,250ft), known as the “death zone” because thin air and low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness.

He was greeted with a khada, a traditional Buddhist scarf, when he arrived at the base camp.

“Sky is the limit? Not for Poles! Andrzej Bargiel has just skied down Mount Everest,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on X.

Bargiel’s team said in a statement that he had made history and called it a “groundbreaking milestone in the world of ski mountaineering”.

Bargiel started eyeing Everest a year after he became the first person to ski down Pakistan’s K2, the second highest mountain in the world, in 2018.

But a dangerous overhanging serac forced him to abandon his 2019 attempt. He returned in 2022, but high winds hindered his plans.

The daredevil adventurer has been on a quest to make ski descents of the highest mountains in the world under his Hic Sunt Leones project, a Latin phrase for “here are lions” and used to refer to uncharted territories.

In Pakistan, he has skied down all four of Karakoram’s mountains that are higher than 8,000 metres and also skied off Nepal’s Manaslu and Shishapangma in Tibet.

Autumn expeditions on Everest are rare because of snowier terrain, shorter and colder days and a narrow summit window compared with the busy spring.

Bianca Adler, who is aiming to become the youngest female to conquer the world’s highest peak, has admitted her devastation at having to turn around when so close to the summit

A girl who is in the process of attempting to climb Mount Everest has been praised on social media after her latest update revealed the toll four days in the mountain’s ‘Death Zone‘ had had on her – before things took an even worse turn. Climbing Everest is a complicated process, which typically requires mountaineers to spend months training both physically and mentally, as well as acclimatising to such high altitudes.

Bianca Adler, 17, is already the youngest female to reach the summit of Manaslu [the eighth-highest mountain in the world at 8,163 metres] and Ama Dablam [6812 metres], and now she has her sights set on the world’s highest peak too. The teenager is documenting her progress, with her clip on TikTok going viral, with a staggering 26million views in just 24 hours.

In it, Bianca shared footage of herself struggling to catch her breath after returning to her camp. Climbers are required to complete their ascent in stages, working their upwards via several camps along the treacherous route.

‘Death Zone’ sits at the ridge of Everest’s summit, some 8,000 metres above sea level and close to its peak of 8,849 metres. It is so-called as the pressure of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span.

Camp 2, meanwhile, which is located on the expedition’s more popular South Route, sits at approximately 6,553 metres high – and it is the trek there from Base Camp (5,364 meters) that Bianca is currently working on.

Barely able to speak, she muttered under her breath: “I just got back from Camp 2 and I’m at Base Camp and I feel horrible.”

Coughing and gasping for air, she continued: “My throat and my lungs… I’m so out of breath even though yesterday I was at 8,000 metres. I’m feeling the worst I have ever felt.”

In a follow-up video shared on Tuesday (September 23), a dejected Bianca explained that she later made it as high as Camp 4 (7,925 metres) but was “devastated” after being forced to turn around for her own safety.

“It’s so hard. I was feeling so good and so strong but I had to turn around due to something out of my control,” she explained, with the aid of an oxygen mask. “I can’t do anything about that and it would have been stupid to carry on.”

She elaborated on Instagram: “I had to turn around on Mt Everest at 8450m (400m below the summit). The winds were way too strong for what I believed was right for my own safety. I could feel my hands and toes going numb, the first step of frostbite.

“I couldn’t see anything, there was snow blowing everywhere. It was an extremely tough decision, but I always want to choose life over a potential summit. I felt strong, like I could summit, and was devastated.”

Bianca continued: “The next night, my Sherpa guides and I tried again from Camp 4, but I was too exhausted from the 10-hour effort the previous night, and turned around. After three nights, and almost four days in the Death Zone at 8,000m or above, we descended back down to Camp 2.”

She concluded: “On the summit push, dad got sick and stayed at Camp 2 whilst I went up. On the way down, he was still sick and I was exhausted. We both got diagnosed with HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) and dehydration (which is normal for mountaineering). I still feel quite sick and extremely exhausted so taking time to recover.”

Scores of mountaineers were quick to praise Bianca’s efforts, however, offering words of comfort and encouragement. “I’m more impressed by how you handled this situation than if you would have pushed yourself to the top… now you can live another day,” one responded on Instagram. “That is what’s important. A true warrior.”

A second person noted: “Such a great effort and the summit isn’t what matters the most, sounds like it was extremely hard and you had to push yourself far but still had to make a tough, but correct decision, which is one of the most valuable and fulfilling experiences you can have in the mountains. So proud!”

Whilst a third individual confessed: “I can’t even imagine how thought that decision was, but safety is always number 1 and you made the right choice. The mountains will always be there girl, well done and huge congratulations on everything you achieved this season.”