Seventeen people died after an avalanche hit Mt Otgontenger in Mongolia’s Zavkhan Province on 21 October. On that fateful day, a group of twenty-seven climbers aged between 30 and 50 had begun the climb of the mountain; not far from the summit, the avalanche struck.

Today (30th of October), the deputy prime minister and other MPs met with representatives from climbing federations as well as some mountaineers at State House to discussed the past tragedy and future actions.

A working group led by the deputy prime minister and the Mongolian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was responsible for running the three-day the search-and-rescue operation for the avalanche victims. Nearly 300 people with two helicopters and 30 special vehicles worked at a camp on Mt Otgontenger, which was established at a height of 2775 meters. All the bodies were recovered, some buried deep under the snow.