Nepal earthquake: Helicopter rescue teams bid to reach remote villages as true scale of tragedy emerges
The beauty of the mountains is staggering – and so is the destruction.
Nestled on ridgelines, we saw dozens of severely damaged villages, dotted with the bright orange tarpaulins of shelters that now house the residents.
Our helicopter was unable to land in these precarious communities and besides we had been told of a medical emergency further east.
Finding the precise location of this injured woman was not easy.
The villagers had been told to light a fire to send a smoke signal into the hazy mountain air.
As we wheeled around our pilot spotted a knot of people next to the faintest wisp of smoke below us.
He deftly brought in the chopper on a precipitous paddy terrace, perhaps 40 feet wide.
There was no margin for error, and no time to waste.
The visibility was deteriorating fast and we were concerned about our journey home, especially as this was the area where a US helicopter went missing on Tuesday evening.
We found Gori Maya Ban on a stretcher and in pain.
Villagers told me she had been injured by falling debris during Nepal’s second major earthquake on Tuesday and now had internal bleeding.
They quickly loaded her into the back of the helicopter along with her husband Prakash and a few minutes after landing we were once again flying low over the peaks of these Himalayan foothills, watching the stunning interplay of cloud and light.
The scenery here is epic: soaring peaks capped with snow falling to cavernous valleys scored by foaming rivers.
No wonder that the aid effort has been so challenging and the true scale of this tragedy is only now beginning to emerge.