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GV Peaks of Himalayan Mountain, in Tibet
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GV Sherpa guides and ponies returning from Dhaulagiri-One Mountain followed by survivors of women's climbing expedition (3 shots)
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GV Sherpas with leader of expedition Vera Komarkova walking to base camp
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SCU Surviving lady member of camp resting.
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SCU AND SV Leader Ms. Komarkova standing speaking to cameraman (2 shots)
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GV Climbers walking through mountain village on descent (2 shots)
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SCU Two surviving members of expedition reading notes on pad
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GV Three climbers along road
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Climber walking down
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Climbers and Sherpas descending along cart trail (2 shots)
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SPORT: MOUNTAINEERING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The surviving members of a women's mountaineering expedition have left the Himalayas in Nepal at the end of a climb marred by the death of one of the climbers. Twenty-seven-year-old Australian, Lynette Griffith, was swept to her death in an avalanche which devastated the expedition's camp eighteen thousand feet (five thousand six hundred metre) up the Dhaulagiri-One Mountain.

SYNOPSIS: Mount Dhaulagiri is the sixth highest peak in the world, at twenty-six-thousand feet (8,111 metres). The expedition of five women, aided by five Sherpa guides, set out on its ambitious climb from Pokhara, eighty miles (130 kilometres) northwest of Kathmandu. Midway through on the second day, an avalanche swept down the mountain, engulfing the camp. When the climbers recovered, they discovered that Mr.s Griffith was missing, along with equipment and supplies. Expedition leader, Vera Komarkova, the most experienced of the climber, organised a search.

After two days of digging, they could find no trace of Mrs. Griffith or their equipment. The climb had to be abandoned. The five Sherpa guides and four surviving climbers had suffered only minor injuries in the avalanche.

With their depleted supplies roped to ponies, they made their way down the mountain to base camp at Pokhara. Mrs. Komarkova, of Boulder, Colorado, said she was deeply hurt by the death of Mrs. Griffith. The two women had become close friends while studying plant ecology in the United States. Before leaving for Kathmandu, the survivors of the avalanche built a small memorial to Mrs. Griffith at the base of the mountain which had taken her life.