Japanese woman, guide killed by avalanche

A Japanese woman and her Nepalese trekking guide were killed when they were swept by an avalanche while trying to scale a mountain in Nepal over the weekend, officials said Wednesday.

Separately, another Japanese woman trekker missing for the past 13 days in the mountainous region was found alive and reported to be in good health.

Nepalese police official Surendra Bartaula said the avalanche struck on Saturday while Masue Yoshida, 63, and her guide were trying to scale the 19,172-foot (5,844-metre) high Naya Kanga peak in Rashuwa district in north-central Nepal.

Yoshida's body is still on the mountain and attempts were being made to fly it some 50 miles (80 kilometres) south to the capital, Kathmandu. Yoshida's hometown was not known.

The woman who was found alive, Makiko Iwafuchi, 49, of Tokyo, also was in the Rashuwa district. She was found by a villager wandering the mountain trails on Tuesday.

Soldiers from a nearby army camp were called and carried her on a stretcher to a hospital in the nearest town on Wednesday, police official Sitaram Chapagain said in a telephone interview.

Chapagain said the woman was in good health and was being kept at the local Dhunche hospital for observation. The Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu was sending a vehicle on Thursday to fetch her.

Iwafuchi had been missing since May 26, when she left her hotel for a stroll on the mountainous trail. She was travelling alone. Officials had launched a search the next day but failed to find any trace.

The police official said weather had been foggy and rainy since the day she went missing. The area is a popular trekking region but it was the end of the season and there were not many trekkers left in the area.

courtesy : The Canadian Press