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Trekkers have recounted facing "harsh" situations after an unexpected blizzard during one of China's busiest festive periods stranded numerous of people on Mount Everest, triggering a large-scale rescue effort.

Evacuation Efforts In Progress

Chinese authorities reported that approximately 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 were still trapped at the Everest Scenic Area, located to the eastern side of the mountain, on the Tibet side of the border.

Crowds of visitors had journeyed to the region for "Golden Week," an eight-day holiday period in China. However, local officials, who administer the Tibetan Autonomous Region, confirmed intense snow had hit the area on the weekend, trapping hundreds of individuals at campsites at an elevation of more than 4,900 meters (16,000 feet).

"It was the most extreme weather I've experienced in all my trekking experiences, undoubtedly," Dong Shuchang stated on Weibo, detailing a "violent convective snowstorm on the east face" of Everest.

"I looked up in the late hours and saw that the snow had nearly buried the top," shared a hiker on a social platform. "It was the initial instance I genuinely experienced the terror of being engulfed by snow."

Personal Accounts

A hiker from China mentioned their party had been "too scared to sleep" on Saturday as snow rapidly built up around their tents, forcing them to remove it every 90 minutes. They chose to descend on Sunday as the weather deteriorated.

"During the descent, we met our guide's father who had searched for him. It was then we learned the storm was intense in the lowlands too; villagers, unable to reach their family on the mountain, were extremely worried."

The north and east side of Everest is easier to reach than sites on the neighboring side of the border and attracts high numbers of visitors for easier trekking, without summiting the peak.

Online Documentation

Images and footage posted online depicted tents buried in snow and rows of trekkers moving through deep drifts to get down the mountain.

"It was very deep, and the trail extremely slippery. Hikers often slipped – a few tumbled, others were bumped by pack animals," noted a trekker, who clarified that all safely descended and were picked up by bus.

Current Status

By the weekend, approximately 350 people had arrived in Qudang, a small town roughly 50 kilometers away from the Tibetan base camp of Everest, "in good health," state media reported.

At least 200 additional remained trapped but had been contacted, the updates indicated. Local news stated that hundreds of rescuers had gone up the mountain to help people and remove accumulation from obstructing the way out.

There was minimal updates or updated information about the rescue effort on the following day. It was also not clear if the storm had affected individuals on the north face of Everest, within the same region. The region is strictly regulated by the Chinese government, and media entry is restricted. The conditions also seemed to have affected phone services, with attempts to contact shops failing. A number of hikers reported power was out in Qudang when they reached the town.

Weather Patterns

Autumn is a peak season for the region, with usually clear and mild weather, but one trekker, one of 18 participants of a trekking group that returned to Qudang, said that the climate this year was "unusual."

"Our leader told us he had never encountered conditions like this in October. And it occurred very abruptly."

The local tourism authority announced admissions and access to the Everest Scenic Area were halted from the weekend.

Broader Effects

Adjacent nations were affected as well by extreme weather. Heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods that have closed routes, destroyed crossings, and killed at least 47 people since the start of the weekend in Nepal.