Search resumes for missing in Nepal avalanche

A team of high-altitude sherpas resumed a search Tuesday for three climbers missing in an avalanche on one of the world's tallest mountains, police said, with almost no hope that they would be rescued. The two French mountaineers and a Canadian were part of a group hit by a wall of snow in their tents near the peak of the 8,156-metre (26,759-foot) Manaslu in the early hours of Sunday. "So far, we don't have any clue about the three missing mountaineers. We have dispatched a team of five sherpas on a search operation," district police chief Basanta Bahadur Kunwar told AFP.Experts say climbers buried in an avalanche have 20 minutes to be dug out before they die from hypothermia or asphyxiation. Police also fear they could have been swept into a crevasse, meaning their bodies might never be recovered. An air rescue operation was called off on Monday, more than 24 hours after the climbers went missing. Kunwar said the sherpas were using snow shovels, ice axes and bamboo sticks to search for the missing."But there is less likelihood of finding them. If not now, they may be found once the snow melts," he said. The avalanche left nine dead, including four French, one Nepali mountain guide, a Spaniard, a German and an Italian. One of the two missing French climbers is Remy Lecluse, 48, a mountain guide and extreme skier who is based in Chamonix.