Climbers Sought For Kashmir Relief Work

ADEPT, an Indian NGO, has appealed for winter mountaineers to help bring relief supplies to high mountain villages in Kashmir in the wake of the recent earthquake in the region.

Many villages have been destroyed, and people face the winter without proper hygiene facilities, without suitable shelter, in cramped quarters, and surrounded by wreckage. On its web site, ADEPT says that attempts to obtain winterised tents have failed and that the only option now is to supply villages with 'tin sheets that can be used for shelter'.

The problem is that many of the affected villages are accessible only by snow-covered high mountain trails and medical teams and others, without mountaineering skills, cannot reach them in winter conditions.

The solution, says the organisation, is to use climbers who are used to operating in such conditions, hence the appeal.

Indian Kashmir has been hit less severely than Pakistani areas, however, the fear is that the combination of lack of shelter and severe weather conditions over winter could produce a second, much larger wave of deaths.

More information from the ADEPT web site and in greater detail here.