
-With AAP.
1. “Footsteps going to a certain point.” NSW mountaineer Ruth McCance feared dead after an avalanche in India’s Himalayas.
Footsteps heading into the path of an avalanche have been found in the search for a Sydney mountaineer, who is feared dead along with seven companions in India’s Himalayas.
Ruth McCance is missing along with British team leader Martin Moran, three men from the UK, two people from the US, and an Indian liaison officer.
The eight adventurers were part of a 12-member expedition attempting to summit a previously unclimbed route up Nanda Devi East.
The team trekked into the heart of the Nanda Devi sanctuary “with the ambition of summiting a virgin peak”, adventure company Moran Mountain said in a Facebook post on May 12.
Fears are growing for an Australian woman, missing with seven other mountaineers after an avalanche in the Himalayan mountains. Ruth McCance was taking an untested route, climbing India’s second-highest peak. https://t.co/eqtt9oCrCA @sarinanastasi #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/Y2WpyT7v1v
— 7NEWS Brisbane (@7NewsBrisbane) June 2, 2019
The trip was expected to take about 24 days.
The company on May 22 wrote that the team had reached its second base camp at almost 5000 metres and “after a recce of the route, they will be making a summit attempt on an unclimbed peak at 6477m”.
The expedition’s British deputy leader, Mark Thomas, remained at the second base camp with three others, but was in radio contact with the group of eight that pushed higher.
When Thomas didn’t hear anything after May 26, he went up to look for them. He reportedly found a single unoccupied tent.
There was evidence of a large avalanche beyond that.
“For eight people, there should definitely have been more tents. I would expect at least three more tents to have been there,” IMF spokesman Amid Chowdhury told AAP on Sunday.