Two Czechs missing in the Himalayas

Two Czech mountain climbers have been missing in the Himalayas since last week. Jakub Vaněk from Plzeň and Petr Machold from Teplice attempted to scale the Baruntse mountain, which is next to mount Everest, earlier this month. The climbers wanted to reach the 7,162-meter summit from the west side, which has only been done successfully once before by a Russian expedition in 1997. According to Vaněk and Machold’s two Czech colleagues, they began the ascent on 9 October in good weather conditions, but in the next few days heavy snow caught them in the second camp. The bad weather did not permit for air evacuation right away, but when the helicopters arrived at the camp on 18 October, the rescue team found only a torn up tent with no people in sight. It is yet not clear if and how the search for the missing climbers will continue.

Author: Masha Volynsky