Kathmandu - Five South Korean climbers and three Nepalese guides are feared dead after a snowstorm tore apart their base camp at Mount Gurja in western Nepal, police said Saturday.
A storm destroyed their camp on the 7,193-metre-high mountain late Friday.
A search-and-rescue helicopter pilot saw eight bodies scattered across the mountain, a Nepal police spokesman, Shailesh Thapa, said.
Expedition organizer Wangchu Sherpa said the team included a veteran South Korean climber who was the first from his country to have scaled 14 peaks higher than 8 000 metres.
Thapa, the police spokesman, said weather conditions on the mountain were preventing search-and-rescue efforts.
It takes at least a day on foot to reach the mountain's base from the nearest village.