At least 12 Nepali guides killed in Everest avalanche

KATHMANDU — An avalanche swept down a slope of Mount Everest on Friday, killing 12 Nepali mountaineering guides at the beginning of the main climbing season, a Tourism Ministry official said.

It was the first major avalanche on Mount Everest this climbing season, when hundreds of foreign and Nepali climbers flock to the mountain to attempt to climb its 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) peak.

More than 4,000 climbers have scaled Everest's summit since it was first climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953. Nearly 250 people have died on the mountain.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 highest peaks. Everest is on the border between Nepal and the Chinese region of Tibet and can be climbed from both sides.

The climbing season usually ends in late May when rainy season wind and cloud pushes up from the south to cloak the Himalayas.