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Australian Man Saves Wife From Mt Everest Avalanche, Later Dies

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Dean Higgins with wife Wendy. Source: ABC

Four people including have been killed in an avalanche including a 60-year-old Australian tourist. The slide came as heavy snow fell on the mountain. Three Tibetan yak herders were also killed, according to Chinese state media. Rescuers evacuated 150 people. Of those taken to safety, 86 were rescued from mountain’s basecamp with many others from the monastery at Ronbak. Officials worked through the night to clear snow from the roads and speed up evacuation. The Australian man, Dean Higgins, survived the initial impact and was able to dig himself and his wife out from the snow. Over the course of the next eight hours they made their way down the mountain before Higgins eventually died, according to a family friend Julie Mahony, as reported by Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “They had to get down the mountain to safety and that took approximately eight hours. We’re not exactly sure what happened but he was alive until they got down the bottom,” Mahony said.