Search and rescue operations under way in Rasuwa
TRISHULI BAZAAR (NUWAKOT, NEPAL): Everest veterans and some of Nepal’s most highly trained mountain guides joined rescue operations in flood-ravaged Rasuwa, with a specialist team entering a mud-choked hydropower tunnel Saturday and pushing around 120m inside before thick sludge and debris blocked further movement. The deployment brought skills normally used on Himalayan expeditions – rope fixing, cliff access, helicopter longline operations and movement through unstable terrain – into parts of the disaster zone where roads had disappeared and conventional rescue methods were proving difficult. The team entered the tunnel at Chilime hydropower project, where six people were believed to be inside. IFMGA-certified guide Ashish Gurung, Dorjee Sherpa and veteran climber Jenjen Lama moved into the tunnel using rope protection and fixed lines before chest-deep sludge stopped them. They recovered a camera bag during the search and concluded that pumps and excavation equipment would be needed before rescuers could safely move deeper.