KATHMANDU: Bad weather forced Nepali rescuers to suspend the search Monday (Jan 19) for an Iranian climber missing for four days after an accident which killed a Nepali team member, expedition organisers said.
Extreme conditions, including fierce winds, made rescue efforts impossible on the 8,481-metre high Mount Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.
Iranian climber Abolfazl Gozali, 42, and Nepali guide Phurba Ongel Sherpa, 44, were part of a rare winter expedition on the peak.
The four-member team successfully summited on Thursday, but during the descent the guide fell to his death.
Team lead Sanu Sherpa, who has climbed all 14 highest peaks in the world at least twice, and Lakpa Rinji Sherpa went to his aid but found that he had fallen hundreds of metres and did not survive.
When they returned to where they had left Gozali, he was no longer there.
"A team of eight experienced climbers have been sent but the wind has been very strong and affected the search," Madan Lamsal of expedition organiser Makalu Adventure told AFP.
"We hope to resume soon."
Lamsal said the the rescuers intend to find Gozali, as well as recover the guide's body.
Phurba Ongel Sherpa was a highly experienced mountaineering guide with multiple summits of Everest and other major peaks.
Gozali is also an accomplished climber, who has climbed two of world's highest peaks and completed the "snow-leopard peaks" -- the five mountains of over 7,000 metres between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
This was his second attempt to summit Makalu in winter. Last year, freezing temperatures and high winds forced the team to turn back, just 800 metres short of the summit.
Nepal is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and welcomes hundreds of climbers every year during the spring and autumn climbing seasons.
Dangerous terrain and extreme weather can make winter expeditions particularly risky. - AFP
