ST. LOUIS (AP) - Two Missouri brothers and another from Florida are stranded but safe after a deadly weekend earthquake rocked portions of Nepal during the siblings' "bucket list" quest to scale Mount Everest, the brothers' mother said.
Theresa Reardon of Wildwood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Steve Reardon of Kirkwood, Mike Reardon of St. Charles, and James Reardon III of Port Orange, Florida, had been in Nepal since April 17 and had reached the 15,000-foot mark of the 29,028-foot climb when Saturday's quake hit.
Mike Reardon's girlfriend was assured by the trekking company that all the climbers including the brothers - ages 46 to 53 - were safe, having descended to a popular, 14,000-foot teahouse stop with many lodges and tent facilities, Theresa Reardon and her husband told the newspaper.
Getting off the mountain has turned challenging because the trails that typically carry climbers back down Everest were wiped out by avalanches, the Reardons said.
"They're not out of the woods yet, because things (in Nepal) are pretty messed up, and they're trying to find ways to get people out of there," said another Reardon brother, Dan Reardon. "But, they're safe."
Climbing Everest "was a bucket list thing for them," Theresa Reardon said.
Officials in the tiny Asian country of Nepal said the earthquake killed more than 4,600 people, and 250 people are believed missing following a mudslide and avalanche Tuesday in an isolated village not far from the epicenter. Tens of thousands of people are living outside since the earthquake, fearing returning to their homes.