Mountains in Nepal are big draw for tourists

The number of adventurers drawn to Nepal to climb the world’s highest mountains has led to more than the country’s fair share of tragedies.

At least nine foreign tourists died earlier this week in an avalanche that swept through a base camp on the world’s eighth-highest peak, Mount Manaslu.

It came at the start of Nepal’s autumn climbing season, when the end of the monsoon rains makes weather in the high Himalayas unpredictable.

The landlocked country of some 26 million people nestles between India and China and has been a magnet for climbers and other adventurers since Everest was first conquered in 1953.

In the first eight months of this year, 377,043 tourists arrived in Kathmandu, the Nepalese Tourism Board said.

The Khumbu area to which the British climbers had been heading is found below the Everest Base Camp and includes the Khumbu Glacier, at an altitude of 17,388ft (5,300m).