Nearly 1,000 People Trapped by Mount Everest Blizzard

Dad Reveals 14-Year-Old Son’s Haunting Words Before Boy Walked Off 120-Foot Mountain Ledge

The world’s tallest mountain has been hit by an unexpected storm.

Nearly 1,000 hikers were stranded on Mount Everest when a massive blizzard ravaged the range’s eastern slope in Tibet over the weekend, according to Chinese state media.

Since then, approximately 350 people have managed to safely make it down to the Tibetan town of Qudang, though rescuers said there are still hundreds of hikers remaining on the slope who “will gradually arrive at the rendezvous point,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Aside from spring, autumn is the season in which climbers typically scale Mount Everest—which stands roughly at 29,032 feet above sea level—due to optimal weather conditions. Hikers traditionally reach the summit through one of two routes: the North Col in Tibet or the South Col in Nepal.

“About one-third into the trek, it began to rain and the rain kept getting heavier,” Chen Geshuang, who was climbing on the Tibetan side, told NBC News. “Later, it turned into sleet, and eventually a full-on blizzard.”

“It was so wet and cold in the mountains,” she recalled. “The guide said he had never encountered such weather in October. And it happened all too suddenly.”

Eric Wen, another climber who turned back due to the weather, told the outlet that he “did not see Everest at all” because of poor visibility from the blizzard.

“We only had a few tents. More than 10 of us were in the large tent and hardly slept,” he said, explaining that his group had to shovel snow every 10 minutes. “Otherwise our tents would have collapsed.”

(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)