WATCH: The search for missing hikers in Nepal continued Friday after a string of deadly blizzards and avalanches. More than 200 people have been rescued so far. At least 29 are dead. Seth Doane reports.
A Canadian survivor of the Nepal avalanche that killed at least 29 people has described a harrowing tale of being buried waist-high in thick, heavy snow on a “nightmare” of a day.
Quebecer Sonia Leveque said she thought she was going to die and that she and her fellow trekkers are fortunate to be alive.
“We fought for survival and we were lucky,” she said in an interview from Nepal with RDI, Radio-Canada’s all-news network.
“I think nobody in the group wanted to die.”
She said that Tuesday was a “nightmare” and that nobody in her small group saw the avalanche coming.
“It happened extremely quickly — within seconds, we were separated,” Leveque said.
WATCH: British Columbians caught in Nepal tragedy
“Three people in our group were swept away (and) we tried to find them but there was about 20 metres of snow accumulated at the bottom of the avalanche.”
The death toll in the tragedy was revised upward Thursday to 27, with four Canadians among the dead and others among the roughly 70 people missing.
READ MORE: 2 Canadians safe as death toll in Nepal blizzard and avalanche rises
Leveque said she and her fellow travellers remained shaken up on Thursday but will stay in Kathmandu for at least a few days to see how the rest of the rescue operation unfolds.
One of the men in her group lost his wife in the tragedy and Leveque said it was important to stay with him to give him support.
She also had not yet decided whether to finish her expedition, but admitted she has concerns about the fresh snow covering the mountains.
“We were supposed to be in the mountains until mid-November,” Leveque said. “Maybe we’ll forgo the snow-covered ones but not the others.”
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Three Quebec women were reported missing, including Genevieve Adam. Her father feared the worst as he travelled to Nepal while the search continued.
“He wants to be there with her,” said Francois Adam, the man’s brother. “It’s his little girl and he won’t leave her there.”
But Adam was not optimistic.
“The last information did not give us a lot of hope,” he told RDI. “She was caught in the avalanche that rolled down and, unfortunately, there’s not much hope.”
Adam said his niece was asleep in her tent with other trekkers at the time.
“What I know is that it happened at around four o’clock in the morning,” he said. “She was sleeping, (and) bang! it hit and passed over them and they were carried down along with the avalanche. It happened just like that.”
Adam said Genevieve loved to travel and that it was her dream to visit Nepal and trek in the Himalayas.
“She talked about it last winter. It was a dream to make that expedition because it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world to go trekking. She accomplished her dream.”
Adam said his brother had two daughters and added that the entire family was in a state of shock.
“We’re realizing even more what’s happening, the magnitude of it,” he said. “We’re not alone. There are other young people who perished in that (avalanche).”
The Children’s Heart Network in British Columbia, meanwhile, posted a Facebook tribute late Thursday to B.C. Children’s Hospital nurse Jan Rooks.
It said Rooks, a cardiology nurse clinician, died when she was caught in the avalanche in the Annapurna region of Nepal.
The non-profit organization said Hooks left for Nepal in late September with her husband, Grant Tomlinson, and another couple. The network’s board of directors said as far as it knows, Tomlinson and the couple were okay.
The statement said Rooks was a “great nurse with a very special love of heart children and families” and had a “special gift for putting people at ease.”
“It seems impossible that someone like Jan can be gone from our lives in the blink of an eye. She will be so sadly missed.”
READ MORE: B.C. nurse one of the four Canadians killed by an avalanche in Nepal
On Thursday, search teams in army helicopters rescued dozens of stranded foreign trekkers and recovered more bodies in mountains in the northern part of the country.
Two women from the Ottawa region who had been reported as missing managed to avoid the worst.
Virginia Schwartz posted on her Facebook page Thursday that she was leaving the hazardous region along with Jane Van Criekingen, her travel companion.
“Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and prayers, we are safe,” Schwartz wrote.
“We are trekking out of the avalanche danger zone and heading back down along the circuit. We are now in Manang on the lower side of the pass and hope to be in Pokhara in 3-4 days.”
Ganga Sagar Pant of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal said the death toll in the area was expected to rise.
The route, 160 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu, was filled with international hikers during the peak October trekking season, when the air is generally clear and cool. Many Nepalese were also on the trails because of local festivals.
Terra Ultima, the Montreal-based travel agency that said three Quebecers were among those missing and feared dead, issued an update Thursday.
It said it was focused on rescue efforts and providing support for the families of those who disappeared as well as for the trekkers who have returned to Kathmandu.
Its statement also said a company representative and a Canadian government envoy were due to arrive on Thursday.
Terra Ultima said earlier that six Quebecers in all were in the area, including those missing: two women in their 50s and one in her 30s. One of the three is the hikers’ guide.
A statement from the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal said the bodies of four Canadians were recovered from the Phu area in Manang district.
A company called Panorama Himalaya confirmed the deaths of three Canadian clients in an avalanche while a company called Nepal Hidden Treks confirmed the death of a Canadian woman.
WATCH: Survivors of a blizzard that hit the Thorong La pass area in Nepal were recounting their survival stories on Thursday.
Panorama Himalaya also said it had rescued three other Canadian trekkers, according to the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal.
Nepal government administrator Yama Bahadur Chokhyal said Thursday that rescuers recovered 10 more bodies from the Thorong La pass area, where they had been caught in a sudden blizzard Tuesday. The bodies were not yet identified.
Chokhyal said 64 more foreign trekkers were rescued from the area on Thursday. Two trekkers from Hong Kong and 12 Israelis were airlifted Wednesday to Kathmandu, where they were being treated at a hospital.
They said they survived by taking refuge in a small tea shop along the path.
“I was sure I was going to die on the way to the pass because I lost my group, I lost all the people I was with and I could not see anything,” said Linor Kajan, an injured trekker from Israel, who said she was stuck in waist-deep snow.
“One Nepalese guide who knows the way saw me and asked me to stay with him. And he dragged me, really dragged me to the tea shop. And everybody there was really frightened,” she said.
Another Israeli survivor, Yakov Megreli, said they tried to stay awake in the tea shop to stay warm.
“We tried not to sleep. We tried not to get hypothermia. It was a very frightening and awful situation,” he said.
Authorities said five climbers were killed in a separate avalanche about 75 kilometres to the west, at the base camp for Mount Dhaulagiri.
— With files from The Associated Press
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