10 Northern Virginia hikers remain missing near China-Nepal border amid massive floods – WTOP News
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A group of 10 Northern Virginia hikers went missing earlier this week during a religious pilgrimage near the China-Nepal border – an area decimated by flooding – prompting local outreach and mobilization from Nepalese community organizers.
Rescue efforts are ongoing in light of devastating floods and landslides in Nepal, which began Wednesday and have claimed nearly 600 lives as of Friday, according to Nepalese officials – with around 2,500 still missing across both Nepal and China.
A Himalayan glacier collapse instigated the crisis, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, causing a flood wave and a magnitude 5.2 landslide that destroyed houses, roads and bridges.
Seven of the hikers are confirmed to be from Loudoun County, according to Piper Hamm, a spokeswoman from the office of U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va.-10th.
The group consists of Anil Goel, Srinivas Sudhir Rangu, Sudhindra Yapalparvi, Laxminath Gopisetty, Venkataraman Balasubramanyam, Kirti Acharya, Venkat Bangalore, Keshav Rao and Vivek Srivastav – all U.S. citizens – and Mahendra Gupta, a Canadian citizen.
Ritwik Rangu, son of Srinivas Sudhir Rangu, declined comment Friday afternoon, citing an overabundance of media requests.
‘A lot of sadness and sorrow’
On Thursday, Rep. Subramanyam released a statement on the incident, calling the flash floods at the border between Nepal and China’s autonomous region of Tibet “devastating.”
“My prayers are with everyone who has been impacted by this terrible disaster,” the congressman said. “I am especially concerned that so many U.S. citizens have been impacted and are currently missing, including many of my constituents from Northern Virginia. Some of them were community leaders who went to find spiritual connection in the Himalayas.”
Subramanyam added his team is in “regular contact” with the State Department to help find missing loved ones and relay information to local families. The congressman encouraged anyone impacted to reach out to his office.
Other community members voiced solidarity with the missing and their kin.
“There is a lot of sadness and sorrow for all the things that happened,” said Jewan Tiwari, a Manassas resident and prominent Nepalese-American activist who ran in the Democratic primary for Gainesville District supervisor in August 2025. “We don’t know how the break thing happened of the glacier. Personally, I think it has to do with more about climate change and global warming … the entire environment is weakened, and then the ice is liquified, and then when it falls down, like it triggers almost an earthquake wave, and then it just massed, and then all the flooding happened. There was no rain and nothing – it was a bright, sunny day, and then suddenly the flood came.”
Tiwari referred readers to the Government of Nepal’s “Prime Minister disaster relief fund” and encouraged community members to donate directly to the source.
He said the expedition was “less about hikers and more about religious pilgrimage tours to Mount Kailash [in Tibet], where thousands of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bön religion devotees go annually.”
The 33-mile hike around Mount Kailash culminates around the Dolma La Pass, its highest peak, at nearly 18,500 feet.
The peak remains unclimbed due to religious observance of its sacred nature and local climbing laws to that end.
A candlelight vigil will be held Sunday from 5:30–7 p.m. in Parking Lot C of the Fairfax County Government Center at 12000 Government Center Pkwy. in Fairfax, with the event organized jointly by the PKP Tender Hearts Foundation and George Mason University’s Nepalese Student Association.
Only battery-operated candles will be used at the vigil, according to Prabha Bhattarai Deuja, founder and president of Tender Hearts.
“Lives may be lost and homes may be damaged, but the spirit of Nepal will never be broken,” Deuja told InsideNoVa. “Together, we pray, stand in solidarity, and extend our support to every family affected by this devastating flood.”