NBC News had a crew in place at a Mt. Everest base camp this morning when an avalanche struck killing at least 13 Sherpas who guide climbers to the summit of the world’s highest peak.
Jonathan Fierro is a producer with NBC’s Peacock Productions and Ed Wardle is a cameraman with the group. They are working on next month’s Everest Jump Live that will air on Discovery Channel, but is being produced by Peacock, and hosted by Willie Geist.
“It’s a pretty regular occurrence here, nobody was shocked by that,” Wardle told Savannah Guthrie on “Today,” adding, “When radio reports started coming off the mountain that people were stuck in the avalanche, everybody came out and started getting organized for the rescue.” Guthrie reports that the rest of the NBC News team there preparing for Everest Jump Live is okay. (The interview is after the jump.)
Over on the Weather Channel, anchor Sam Champion spoke with his former colleague, WABC anchor and avid mountaineer, Diana Williams, who was live in Katmandu. Williams had just descended from Mt. Everest after reaching base camp. The rest of her climbing group was still up on the mountain.