HOPES faded yesterday for survivors of one of Nepal’s worst mountain disasters as villagers joined an intensive search by troops and government officials for as many as 40 people missing after an unseasonal blizzard killed 39.

    More than 500 people have been rescued from a route popular with foreign adventure tourists that circles Annapurna, the world’s 10th-tallest peak, among them 230 foreigners.

    Rescuers turned to villagers familiar with the rugged, snow-clad terrain in the hunt for trekkers stranded in isolated areas after the tail end of a cyclone that hit neighboring India last weekend triggered the snow and avalanches.

    “We are not clear where the missing people are and whether they are safe or not safe,” Yadav Koirala, the chief of Nepal’s disaster management authority, told reporters in Kathmandu, the capital.

    Since Wednesday, rescue teams have recovered 30 bodies and identified nine more from the air. “The snow is very thick and the rescue teams are finding it difficult to pull the nine bodies out,” said K.P. Sharma, an administrator in Dolpa.

    Army helicopters continued to search for survivors on parts of the trail at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters. Solders fanned out through some of the most treacherous terrain where helicopters cannot land. The dead include Canadian, Indian, Israeli, Japanese, Nepalese, Polish and Slovak trekkers. Survivors said many victims perished trying to descend from the trail’s highest pass in freezing, whiteout conditions.

    The incident was the year’s second major mountain disaster in Nepal, after an avalanche killed 16 guides on Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, in April.

    (SD-Agencies)