All stranded tourists in Mt. Qomolangma rescued

All of the stranded tourists in Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest) region of Nepal have been rescued following the improvement in the weather of the region. This is the peak season for many trekkers around the world to come to Nepal for trekking in the Base Camp area in north eastern Nepal. However, the weather plays a very bad role in the region which is so unexpected and changes so frequently that the regular flights are halted and tourists are bound to be stranded. Talking to Xinhua on Thursday, Chief of the Civil Aviation Authority Nepal at Solukhumbhu Utsav Kharel said that the entire stranded tourists have already been rescued from the area. There were approximately 3,000 stranded tourists in the Tenzing- Hillary Airport in Lukla for 6 days following sudden change in weather condition. However, Kharel said that now the normal daily flights has resumed in the airport. The small airport which is located at an altitude of 2,860 meters is one of the busiest airports in Nepal as it is the entry point for the trekkers to visit Mt. Qomolangma. In January 2008, the airport was renamed in honor of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first persons to reach the summit of Mt. Qomolangma. The surrounding terrain, thin air, highly changeable weather and the airport's short, sloping runway make it one of the most challenging landing strips in the world. Kharel said that the stranded tourists easily handled themselves even there was lack of space even lack of foods like bread, meat, vegetables. "It was weather that blocked them there, so they took it easily, " he added. He said that there are regular 50-60 flights in the area and most of the passengers would be tourists. "There are around 500 tourists daily, who have successfully finished trekking fly back to Kathmandu," he added. The government of Nepal had shown a lot of concern for rescuing the trapped tourists in the area, as the days increased the number of returnee trekkers also increased leading to overcrowding of Lukla. Nepali Army along with other private airplanes who operate regular flights in Lukla were involved in rescuing the tourists trapped in the region, Kharel said, adding that now the weather has improved and everything have come back to normal.