Nepal’s tourism ministry has attributed the high death toll of trekkers in the Himalayan snowstorm to penny-pinching tourists reluctant to spend money on a personal mountain guide.
In comments likely to anger many survivors, Mohan Krishna Sapkota, spokesman of the tourism Ministry, said many of the victims were ‘cheaper tourists’ who did not want to hire guides.
"If they were with a guide then they would have had a much better idea about the weather," Sapkota said.
The snowstorm hit Thorong Pass on the popular Annapurna Circuit walking route, trapping hundreds of trekkers.
The death toll has reportedly reached 43 but will probably rise to around 50 before everybody is accounted for, said the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal, which is helping to coordinate the search for more stranded trekkers.
Despite the comments from the tourism ministry, survivors said some guides encouraged trekkers to cross the Thorong Pass even as weather started to deteriorate.
Nepal’s prime minister Sushil Koirala will authorise a weather warning system, calling the snowstorm and avalanches ‘extremely tragic at a time when worldwide weather updates are available every second’.
