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Mountaineers mourn avalanche dead
Hundreds of mountaineers and Sherpas in Nepal paid emotional tribute Saturday to 16 of their fellow guides who died in an avalanche on Everest a year ago, suspending climbing for the day
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undreds of mountaineers and Sherpas in Nepal paid emotional tribute Saturday to 16 of their fellow guides who died in an avalanche on Everest a year ago, suspending climbing for the day.
The avalanche tore through a group of Sherpas who were hauling gear up the mountain on the morning of April 18, 2014, sending shock waves through the climbing community.
The disaster triggered an unprecedented shutdown of the 8,848-meter mountain, fuelling demands for better compensation as well as higher death and injury benefit payouts to the Sherpas' families.
'All teams here have decided not to climb today to mourn the friends we lost last year,' Pasang Sherpa, a mountaineering guide at Everest base camp, told AFP.
'My heart races when I look at the icefall. It is a sad day for us,' added Sherpa, who was at the camp when the avalanche hit last year.
Mountaineering is a huge revenue earner for the impoverished Himalayan country, home to eight of the world's 14 peaks over 8,000 meters.
