NEPAL (WTNH)- A group of U.S. climbers who were climbing Mount Everest when the earthquake and avalanche hit, found themselves with no way down.
According to ABC News, the Madison Mountaineering group had managed to get to Camp 2 but discovered the rest of their route down the mountain was impassable, their base camp had been devastated and one of their members, “our beloved doctor Eve Girawong” had died.
“We have been up here at Camp 2 hanging tough but we are running low on food and fuel and we have to get down,” Garrett Madison, of Madison Maintaineers told ABC News on Sunday. “There’s no path or route through the Khumbu icefall at this point in time. The teams that have tried to make their way through the icefall today were unsuccessful and it will not be attempting again in the future. So at this point our only option to get down is by helicopter evacuation.”
Madison said they hoped to make it to Camp 1, which is lower, so it would be possible for a helicopter to evacuate them.
According to their website which had been tracking their progress, Madison and his team did “quickly and safely descend from Camp 2 to Camp 1″ later that day and waited there for a helicopter. They reported from there that the weather was very good at base camp and several climbers from different teams were waiting for a ride down to base camp.
By Monday, their website reported that the Madison Mountaineering team had finally made it to base camp.
Base camp had been almost completely destroyed when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday and unleashed an avalanche on Mt. Everest, which killed 18 people on the mountain, including three Americans. The avalanche hit just as climbing season was nearing its end.
China has also just cancelled all mountaineering on the Chinese side of Mt. Everest, which is reportedly less popular with climbers because to enter Tibet you must have a special permit.
The Associated Press reports that as of Monday, police say 3,617 people have been confirmed dead in Nepal after the earthquake.