Manaslu avalanche kills Indian-German climber and Nepali Sherpa at Camp 3

An Indian-German climber and his Nepali Sherpa guide have died after an avalanche hit their tent at Camp 3 on Mount Manaslu in Nepal, expedition organisers said on Sunday. The two were identified as Dhruva Jyoti Guha, a resident of Germany, and Fursemba Sherpa, an experienced mountain guide from Nepal's Makalu.

Mohan Lamsal, managing director of Makalu Adventure, which organised the expedition, said the pair had moved up from Camp 2 towards a higher camp despite bad weather and were caught in the avalanche on Saturday night. Their deaths have taken the number of fatalities on Mount Manaslu this climbing season to four.

Lamsal said the two climbers had advanced despite adverse weather conditions, while six other climbers from the company turned back from Camp 2 and remained safe. "A heavy avalanche fell above their tent and both the climbers were buried in the snow," he said. "Six other climbers from the company who decided to retreat from Camp 2 were safe, but the two who made the attempt in a hurry despite the bad weather condition met with the accident," he said.

According to Lamsal, a rescue team was sent to Camp 3 after the two climbers stopped communicating with the expedition organisers. Their last communication was received on Saturday night. He said their bodies were found under about seven feet of snow when the rescue team reached the camp.

Efforts were under way to bring the bodies down to the base camp, from where they are expected to be flown to Kathmandu on Monday, if the weather permits, he said. Earlier, a Singaporean climber and a Nepali guide were killed in separate incidents on the mountain.

Mount Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest peak, rises to 8,163 metres above sea level. Located in Nepal's Gorkha district in the Himalayas, about 65 km east of the Annapurna range, the mountain has now recorded four deaths in the current climbing season, including Guha and Fursemba Sherpa.