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FACTBOX - World's deadliest mountaineering disasters
03 Aug 2008 13:29:05 GMT
 Source: Reuters
Aug 3 (Reuters) - At least nine people have died climbing K-2, the world's second highest mountain. Most of the deaths resulted from an ice fall close to the summit of the 8,611 metre (28,250 ft) peak that swept some climbers to their death.

Here is a list of some of the world's worst mountaineering disasters:

Nov 9, 1972 -14 mountaineers, mostly Koreans, were killed by avalanches on Mount Manaslu, the world's eighth highest peak at 8,163 metres (26,775 feet).

July 17, 1990 - An avalanche swept 40 climbers from five nations to their deaths. The victims -- 27 Soviet climbers, six Czechs, four Israelis, two Swiss and one Spaniard -- were camped some 6,000 metres (19,500 feet) up in the Pamir mountains.

Nov 11, 1995 - A huge avalanche struck the overnight camp of a Japanese trekking group in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, killing 42 people including 13 Japanese, and buried 11 guides and porters, as well as two residents of the Pangka region near Everest, the world's highest peak, Takashi Miyahara.

Aug 5, 1997 - Eight climbers died in a series of accidents in the Italian Alps. Four men were killed when they fell more than 100 metres (330 feet) from the approach to the 3,850-metre (12,631-foot) summit of the Great Zebru mountain near the Swiss and Austrian borders. Another three climbers died in a separate incident on the same mountain one of them was a 44-year-old Alpine guide who had witnessed the first accident and alerted mountain rescue services. Fifty miles (80 km) further east, a 62-year-old man, died after falling 50 metres (165 feet) from Mount Pelmo near Belluno.

Jan 24, 1998 - Nine children and two adults from the St Francis of Assisi school in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, south of Paris who went on a trek, died in an avalanche in the Alps.

Dec 17, 2000 - Ten people died in accidents in the Italian Alps, four of them slipping one-by-one to their deaths trying to save a dog. Icy weather was blamed for the accidents in the northern Lombardy region, several of which involved people slipping off paths and falling to their deaths.

Aug 15, 2002 - Five students from China's Peking University were dead or missing after being swept away by an avalanche in Tibet while climbing one of the world's highest peaks. The avalanche occurred on August 7 as the team was attempting to scale Mount Shishapangma, the world's 14th highest mountain at 8,012 metres (26,289 feet).

For main story click [nISL124958]

(Compiled by Carl Bagh)


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