Experienced Uzbek climber Ilyas Tukhvatullin, 54, and his climbing partner Ivan Lobanov, 51, were swept away on Monday evening and have not been found.[break]
"They were at camp two at around 6,500 metres and their colleagues informed the base camp after they were hit by an avalanche," Tilak Pandey, an officer at the country´s tourism ministry, told AFP.
Annapurna is both technically difficult and avalanche-prone and has a much higher death rate among climbers than Everest, the world´s highest peak.
"We have called off a search by helicopters. We have sent Sherpas for a ground search," said Mahesh Chhetri from the expedition organiser Royal High Mountain.
Last month an avalanche on Mount Manaslu in Nepal killed nine mountaineers including five French, a Spaniard, a German, an Italian and a Sherpa guide.
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