KATHMANDU, May 16 -- The members of the first ever private Chinese women expedition to Mount Everest (Qomolangma) were grateful to Nepal's Sherpa community for the support they provide to foreign climbers at a press conference organized by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) in Kathmandu on Friday.

The women-only expedition was cancelled following the terrible avalanche which killed 16 Sherpa guides on April 18.

"We spent more than a month in the mountains and we have gained much more than what we had expected in particular thanks to the Sherpas," Ma Liyamu, the team leader told journalists.

The group had been preparing the expedition for more than one year to fulfill their dream of conquering the world's highest peak from the south.

"I wanted the team members to know the names of all our Sherpas. They are the invisible heroes of every expedition to Mount Everest, " Yong Liu, who coached the female-only group both physically and mentally, said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

He added that one of their Sherpas aged only 19, father of two, narrowly escaped the deadliest accident on Mount Everest as a high- altitude avalanche struck an area known as the "popcorn field" for its bulging chunks of ice.

Yong Liu said that the weather conditions on the world's highest peak were critical and that they witnessed avalanche on a daily basis.

"We abandoned plans to ascend Everest because respect comes above all; respect for nature and for the Sherpa community," he argued, commenting on the decision of two foreign mountaineers to climb the mountain despite the effective closure of the season.

"For the Sherpa community, Mount Everest is sacred. Since its first ascent in 1953, many climbers have reached the summit and in my opinion the mountain needs to rest even though this will have economic repercussion for the mountaineering business," Temba Tsheri Sherpa, who in 2001 at the age of 16 became the youngest person to climb Mount Everest, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Members of the Chinese team Ma Liyamu, Tsang Yin Hung, Wang Chu Han and Zheng Yu successfully ascended the Parchemo Peak in Nepal at an altitude of 6,187 meters before going back to China.

Even though the Chinese women climbers did not make it, they will reattempt in 2015 with the possibility of other members joining the expedition. The group also expressed their interest to collaborate with 7 Nepali women from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds whose mission is to climb the highest mountain in each continent.

President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) Ang Tshering Sherpa thanked the Chinese climbers for their recognition of the role the Sherpas played in the mountaineering sector.

He added that their next year's expedition to Mount Everest will commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the diplomatic relations between Nepal and China which were officially established in 1955.