SEATTLE (AP) — Mount Everest is normally buzzing with activity this time of year, with hundreds of hopeful climbers gathering at base camp to attempt to summit the world's tallest peak during a narrow 10-day window in May before the monsoons arrive. 
 
 FILE - In this May 16, 2013 file photo, Nepalese Sherpas rest as they climb Mount Everest. The abrupt ending of the climbing season on Mount Everest’s north and south sides following a deadly earthquake... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this undated photo provided by Alpenglow Expeditions, climbers, guides and Sherpas meet with members of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association at a Mount Everest base camp on the northern Tibetan... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this undated photo provided by Alpenglow Expeditions, Brian Warren, a guide with Alpenglow Expeditions, far left, poses for a photo with a group of Sherpas at a Mount Everest base camp on the northern... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE – In this Sunday, April 26, 2015 file photo, Sherpa guides injured in an avalanche sit inside a bus after they were evacuated from Mount Everest Base Camp, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Despite a massive... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sunday April 26, 2015, photo provided by 6summitschallenge.com, a helicopter prepares to rescue people at Everest Base Camp, Nepal. On Saturday, a large avalanche triggered by Nepal's massive... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo provided by Alpenglow Expeditions, Mount Everest is seen from a base camp on the northern Tibetan side of the mountain. Although no one climbing on the north side was injured following... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this undated photo provided by Alpenglow Expeditions, climbers, guides and Sherpas meet with members of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association at a Mount Everest base camp on the northern Tibetan... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sunday April 26, 2015, photo provided by 6summitschallenge.com, a helicopter prepares to rescue people at Everest Base Camp, Nepal. On Saturday, a large avalanche triggered by Nepal's massive... (Associated Press) 
 
 It is also the most lucrative season for Sherpas, the locals living in the high-altitude regions of the Himalaya who support climbing teams as porters, guides, rope-fixers, cooks and dish-washers. 
 
 But Everest is basically closed after a magnitude-7.8 quake triggered a massive avalanche that killed 19 at basecamp and more than 5,800 people throughout the country. China said Wednesday it was ending the climbing season early on the Tibet side, and most major mountaineering companies on the Nepal side canceled their climbs because of logistical challenges and safety concerns. 
 
 That leaves Sherpas, who can earn up to $5,000 to $7,000, plus bonuses and tips, during the three-month climbing season, wondering how they'll make up that lost revenue in a country where the per capita income is about $730 annually. Cooks and other support personnel earn about half as much, but still well above the average pay in the country. 
 
 Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, an umbrella body of mountaineering agencies and climbers in Nepal, said Sherpas are worried the season may be over. While many Sherpas sign contracts that will still have to be paid, they'll miss out on day rates and bonuses. 
 
 Steve Mock, director a climbing school for Nepali called the Khumbu Climbing Center, said the lower incomes also mean Sherpas now have less money to rebuild their homes. 
 
 "Insurance for that sort of thing is simply not available in Nepal so rebuilding costs come directly out of pocket," he said. "Many save up money from working on Everest for years in order to build a decent house that may well have been destroyed or at least damaged by the quake. So financially, this is simply devastating." 
 
 The financial burden could spread beyond just the Sherpas. Everest is a major economic driver for the country, which receives more than $3.5 million from Everest climbing permits annually, said Conrad Anker of Bozeman, Montana, who has climbed Everest three times. 
 
 Climbing permits run about $11,000 per person for climbing Everest from the Nepal side and $7,000 per person on the Tibet side, and hundreds are sold each year. 
 
 The climbing season runs from March to June. 
 
 A few teams are trying to find a way to salvage the season, and some Sherpas would welcome the work. 
 
 Kapindra Rai of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which is in charge of the route through the treacherous Khumbu Icefall on the Nepal side, said staff descended from base camp because two of their cooks were injured, they lost their equipment and many wanted to be with their families. 
 
 But they were ready to return if any expedition asks, Rai said. 
 
 Adrian Ballinger, a guide with the California-based Alpenglow Expeditions, said although his Everest team had to call off their summit bid on the Tibet side, they are still paying their 12 Nepali Sherpas. 
 
 "We are paying full wages minus summit bonuses, and a separate fund for home rebuilding," he said in a text message Thursday. "We recognize this is their sole income." 
 
 Others in the international climbing community are raising funds to support the communities. 
 
 The Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International team is working its way back to Kathmandu and then home but they are leaving their climbing supplies behind for earthquake victims, said Gordon Janow. 
 
 The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation, based in Bozeman, Montana, said on its website that it is accepting donations to be given to climbing communities of Nepal. The American Himalayan Foundation is also collecting donations for earthquake support. 
 
 The quake has once again raised questions about whether the mountain, with a storied history of dramatic accidents and high death rates, can be climbed safely. The catastrophe came almost a year after a block of ice triggered an avalanche that struck the Khumbu Icefall just above base camp on April 18, 2014, killing 16 Sherpas. 
 
 "The bigger question is, what are people's perspectives of the mountain going to be now? Are people going to want to climb Everest?" asked Peter Athans, a Washington state climber who has been on 14 Everest expeditions. 
 
 "The future is very uncertain." 
 
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 Gurubacharya reported from Kathmandu, Nepal. 
 
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 Follow Martha Bellisle at https://twitter.com/marthabellisle ||||| KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Thousands of people were still missing in Nepal on Friday as food and help began to trickle through to those stranded in remote areas after last week's earthquake which killed 6,250. 
 
 The death toll could rise further. Bodies are still being pulled from the debris of ruined buildings, while rescue workers have not been able to reach some remote areas. 
 
 The government put the number of injured at more than 14,350. 
 
 In the capital Kathmandu, many unclaimed bodies were being quickly cremated because of the need to avert disease and reduce the stench of corpses in areas where buildings had collapsed. 
 
 "Morgues are full beyond capacity and we have been given instructions to incinerate bodies immediately after they are pulled out," said Raman Lal, an Indian paramilitary force official working in coordination with Nepali forces. 
 
 Many of the dead could be migrant workers from neighbouring India, local officials said. 
 
 The head of the European Union delegation in Nepal said up to 1,000 Europeans were still unaccounted for, mostly around popular trekking routes. 
 
 Officials said it was hard to trace the missing because many backpackers do not register with their embassies. 
 
 "It does not mean that they are buried. They could have left the country without telling anyone before the earthquake struck," Ambassador Rensje Teerink told reporters. 
 
 Another EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "A number of EU citizens are not accounted for, but this could be for many reasons. It is fast moving and very fluid and estimated numbers are only estimates." 
 
 The number of people unaccounted for from France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands is 371, according to checks Reuters made with these governments, while all Irish citizens, Croatians and Romanians have been traced. Other European nations have yet to provide an updated figure for how many of their citizens are unaccounted for. 
 
 Aid was slowly reaching remote towns and villages nestled in the Himalayan mountains and foothills of the impoverished nation. But government officials said efforts to step up the pace of delivery were frustrated by a shortage of supply trucks and drivers, many of whom had returned to their villages to help their families. 
 
 "Our granaries are full and we have ample food stock, but we are not able to transport supplies at a faster pace," said Shrimani Raj Khanal, a manager at the Nepal Food Corp. 
 
 Army helicopters have air-dropped instant noodles and biscuits to remote communities but people need rice and other ingredients to cook a proper meal, he said. 
 
 Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since the 7.8 magnitude quake, with survivors afraid to return to their homes because of powerful aftershocks. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged. 
 
 Information Minister Minendra Rijal said the government would provide $1,000 in immediate assistance to the families of those killed, as well as $400 for cremation or burial. 
 
 The U.N. said 8 million of Nepal's 28 million people were affected, with at least 2 million needing tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months. 
 
 UNPRECEDENTED DAMAGE 
 
 Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said Nepal would need at least $2 billion to rebuild homes, hospitals, government offices and historic buildings and appealed for international backing. 
 
 "This is just an initial estimate and it will take time to assess the extent of damage and calculate the cost of rebuilding," Mahat told Reuters. 
 
 Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters earlier this week the death toll from the quake could reach 10,000. 
 
 That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the nation sandwiched between India and China. 
 
 Home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said that though the 1934 quake was more powerful, fewer people lived in the Kathmandu valley then. 
 
 "The scale of reconstruction will be unprecedented," Dhakal said. 
 
 While international aid has poured in, some Nepalis have accused the government of being too slow to distribute it. 
 
 "There have been cases where villages have pelted stones on trucks carrying aid and food supplies. They must have been really hungry and angry to do so," said Purna Shanker, who works at the government's commodity trading office. 
 
 In Sundarkhula, a village close to the quake's epicentre west of Kathmandu, villagers said they were searching their destroyed homes for food. 
 
 Bharat Regmi, 28, said he jumped out of the first floor as the quake lifted his house from its foundations. When he went back a few days later, he and two of his friends found a bag of potatoes in the rubble. 
 
 "We are living on water and whatever we can dig out from the house," he said, standing under steady rain near the highway to Kathmandu. Later, he crept back under a thin orange sheet, shared with about a dozen other villagers. 
 
 Tensions have also flared between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated. 
 
 In the Himalayas, climbing is set to reopen on Mount Everest next week after damage caused by avalanches is repaired, although many have abandoned their ascents. 
 
 An avalanche killed 18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides at the Everest base camp. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Tommy Wilkes in New Delhi; Gopal Sharma, Ross Adkin, Frank Jack Daniel, Andrew Marshall, Adnan Abidi and Christophe Van Der Perre in Nepal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan/Ruth Pitchford)
– Yet another casualty of Nepal's disastrous earthquake: lost wages for Sherpas. The locals who help hundreds scale Mount Everest each year will lose out on some of the $5,000 to $7,000 plus tips they typically earn from March to June since "Everest is basically closed," as the AP puts it. While some have signed contracts and will still be paid, they'll miss out on bonuses that could go a long way toward rebuilding their homes. "Financially, this is simply devastating," says the head of a climbing company. The country's annual per capita income is about $730. Nepal could also take a hit as climbing permits, at about $11,000 per person, help drive the economy. More: The death toll in the quake is climbing daily and has now reached 6,204, with 13,924 injured, per Reuters. Nepal's government says it will give $1,000 to the families of victims, plus $400 for cremation or burial. The head of the EU delegation in Nepal had a big number for reporters: 1,000. That's how many Europeans are missing, per Ambassador Rensje Teerink, though Nepal's home ministry counters that it's the first it's heard of that number. (Reuters confirmed 221 are missing from France, Spain, and Italy.) Officials say the smell of rotting flesh is becoming overpowering. "Morgues are full beyond capacity and we have been given instruction to incinerate bodies immediately after they are pulled out," an official says. Nepal's finance minister estimates at least $2 billion is needed to rebuild the 600,000 damaged or destroyed homes, plus hospitals, government offices, and historic buildings. Some 2 million will need tents and a supply of food, water, and medicine for the next three months.