Salmon Arm doctors Maureen McTavish and Ruth Brighouse, along with residents Joyce Johnson and Eileen McDonald, were among the Canadians trekking in Nepal earlier this week when blizzards and avalanches struck the region around the Annapurna range earlier this week.
Fall is Nepal’s high season for trekking, but heavy rain and snow have lashed the region after tropical Cyclone Hudhud struck the Indian subcontinent.
McTavish is listed on an Annapurna Nepal information website as safe, Brighouse, Johnson and McDonald’s status is listed as still unknown, but friends of the Salmon Arm residents have posted on Facebook that all four are safe.
It appears the women were traveling on a different trail not near the worst of the weather.
They are at the top of the Anapura Base Camp and will be heading back to Katmandu shortly.
The Toronto Star was reporting the group of four British Columbians were disconnected from the tragic events of this week and blissfully unaware of the anxiety their silence had caused back home.
In their story, it states: “That was the case for Maureen McTavish and her three friends, all from British Columbia, who arrived Wednesday night at a base camp and stumbled into a teahouse that had a wireless Internet connection.”
The Star also spoke with McTavish’s son, Matt, who said the group had no idea about the critical situations elsewhere on the Annapurna circuit and would have contacted family sooner had they known.
