3 Bodies Found Buried on Peak Near Everest

Three French climbers appear to have died in an avalanche on a peak near Mount Everest last month. The bodies of Thomas Arfi, Gabriel Miloche, and Louis Pachoud were recovered from Kangtega mountain in Nepal's remote Solukhumbu district on Monday, a day after they were discovered under more than six feet of snow, Police Inspector Rishi Raj Dhakal tells the Kathmandu Post. The group was found on the 19,700-foot Mingbo Eiger, described as a satellite peak of Kangtega, per AFP. They'd made a satellite phone call from their mountain camp on Oct. 26, the same day an avalanche struck the area, and hadn’t been heard from since.

Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, a member of the search and rescue team, said all three bodies were in the same location, "buried nearly two meters under the snow," per the Post. They've been identified and taken to the capital for autopsies, reports Reuters. The three men were part of an eight-member expedition team with permits to scale the 22,254-foot-tall Kangtega and 21,130-foot Cholatse, according to a tourism official, who noted the group had split in two. Arfi, Miloche, and Pachoud, who appear to have abandoned a summit attempt, were on their way down the mountain when the avalanche struck, per AFP. The outlet reports few climbers attempt to scale Himalayan peaks from September to November because of low temperatures and high winds. (More mountain climbing stories.)