Trekker's lucky escape from Everest after hundreds stranded on mountain by blizzard

A trekker has told Sky News of how he escaped the worst of a snowstorm near Everest that left hundreds of people stranded.

Speaking on The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee, Rob Mason described seeing a body brought down from the world's highest mountain after he and his friends completed a charity trek to the base camp. Mr Mason, from Jersey, said he and his six friends were caught in the blizzard that left at least one person dead and many others trapped near the eastern face of the peak in Tibet.

Hundreds of hikers were stuck by unseasonal deep snow over the weekend after an unusually powerful blizzard dumped heavy snowfall in the Himalayas. Mr Mason said they were heading down the mountain on the Nepal side when rain and thunderstorms hit, and "went on for about 18 hours".

He told Sarah-Jane Mee that a "substantial amount of rain fell as heavy snow higher up, de-stabilising the area and trapping those who were higher up the mountain". A path that his group was following down on the lower slopes was taken away by a landslide just 12 hours after they used it, he said.

His party was one of the last groups to get past before it was washed away, after which, "it became impassable, so alternative, higher, routes had to be taken". His trek ended in the town of Lukla, in the province of Koshi in northeastern Nepal, he said.

Whilst "grounded" there, "we were hearing stories coming down the mountain of about other groups being airlifted where they could be or others being locked down in their tea houses to wait it out until conditions improved. "While we were at Lukla helipad, we saw the recovery of a body of somebody who'd been taken ill on the mountain and, sadly, the emergency services weren't able to get to them in time." The trek to Everest was organised to raise money for Kezia's Fund, a charity established in memory of Mr Mason's daughter, "our beautiful Kezia.