Rescuers spent a second day searching Himlung Base Camp in Manang district and recovered the bodies of two more workers. That brings the number of bodies recovered to four. Rescue leader Mingma G. Sherpa said the recoveries make it clear that no one survived, and twelve people are still missing.
The avalanche hit the base camp of Himlung Himal (7,126 m) in the Nar Phu area on the morning of Sunday, September 27, 2026. It left the camp under about 14 feet of snow and ice. It followed three days of regular rain across Nepal after a Bay of Bengal cyclone entered the country. Gandaki province had the heaviest rain, and Manang saw several avalanches and landslides.
The people on the mountain were Nepali climbers, guides, and support and kitchen staff. They were preparing the camp and fixing ropes ahead of the autumn climbing season for foreign clients. No foreign climbers were involved.
The numbers
Twenty-seven workers from two tourism companies had gone to the area to build the base camp when the avalanche hit.
Eleven returned safely to the district headquarters on Sunday.
Four bodies have been recovered, two on Sunday and two on Monday. Chhebi Bhote and Pasang Bhote were recovered yesterday, and Birendra Gurung and Ghanshyam Rai today. Twelve people are still unaccounted for.
The rescue
The Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) rescue team reached Himlung Base Camp today early on Monday morning and began the search. The team was led by Mingma G. Sherpa, an IFMGA mountain guide. Seven other IFMGA guides went with him Pasang Kaji Sherpa, Pimba Tenzing Bhote, Ashish Gurung, Tsering Pemba Sherpa, Bikram Karki, Dandu Sherpa and Pasang Rinzi Sherpa.
NNMGA said the team found the bodies of Birendra Gurung and Ghanshyam Rai in the Himlung area of Narphabhumi Rural Municipality-5. The bodies of Chhebi Bhote and Pasang Bhote were recovered on Sunday and brought to the district headquarters. The bodies were brought to Kathmandu today for postmortem examinations.
What the rescuers found
Mingma G. said the whole rescue team came down from the mountain today. They had gone up in a hurry, hoping to find survivors.
“We had rushed up in the hope of finding survivors, but we had no luck.”
He said the size of the avalanche was not something anyone expected at Himlung Base Camp.
The avalanche was enormous. No one had believed that Himlung Base Camp could experience something of that scale. We recovered four bodies, making it clear that no one survived. Still, twelve cook staff remain missing at Himlung Base Camp.
Mingma G
The conditions made the search very hard. Mingma G. said digging through 14 feet of snow across every area with shovels was impossible, and the freezing cold made it harder.
The loss is also personal for his team. Two of the missing are his own: his cook, Ash, and Ash’s assistant, Kirte.
Official figures
Krishna Prasad Poudel, the Assistant Chief District Officer of Manang, confirmed the numbers. He said 27 workers from two tourism companies had gone to the area to build the base camp and were caught in the avalanche. Eleven returned safely to the district headquarters on Sunday. The whereabouts of the remaining 12 are still unknown, he said.
Where things stand
The rescue team will keep monitoring snow conditions. It will bring out the bodies as the snow melts further. The work now is recovery, not rescue.
Mingma G. also said the pause is on his team’s side, not the organizers’.
“The rescue has been paused on our side, not by the organizers, so they may have their own plans of which we are unaware. Also, a few other rescuers are missing from the picture, and we are sorry for that team.”
The workers at Himlung Base Camp were doing their regular job. They were building the camp and getting the mountain ready for the autumn season. The team at base camp is reported to have called down on Friday, before the avalanche.
Nothing in that call suggested what was coming. As Mingma G. said, no one had believed Himlung Base Camp could see an avalanche of this size. Snow, rain and cold do not follow a schedule, and a few days of heavy rain after a cyclone turned a working camp into a disaster site.
Right: Himlung Base Camp today, completely buried under around 14 feet (4.3 meters) of snow following the avalanche. (Nepal National Mountain Guides Association / Facebook)
Twelve people are still missing under 14 feet of snow, and four families have already lost someone. Recovery will go slowly and will depend on the snow melting. The people who go up to do it will be doing it for colleagues and friends.
Sherpa Legend thanks the NNMGA search and rescue team for responding so quickly and for the effort they put in. They climbed up hoping to find survivors, dug in freezing cold with shovels, and came back with the names of the missing. Our thoughts are with the families of the workers still on the mountain.
