Tamar Ariel's family spent the summer worrying about her. An Israeli Air Force navigator, she served in the seven-week conflict with Hamas, but once it was over, they relaxed and she got ready to pack her bags for a holiday in Nepal.

She returned dead after she was killed in a massive avalanche during the blizzard that struck the Annapurna mountain range last week, and was buried on Tuesday.

"Many things she did in her life involved danger, but then she then went on a simple and fun holiday and this happened," said her uncle, Shraga Wilk.

He spoke in a telephone interview shortly after the number of Israeli trekkers confirmed dead as a result of the snow storm rose to four.

Ms Ariel, 25, was confirmed killed shortly after the blizzard, as were 23-year-old Agam Luria and 30-year-old Nadav Shoham. For the family of Michal Cherkasky, 36, the agony of uncertainty was drawn out for almost a week, until her body was found on Tuesday.

Ms Ariel's family and friends remembered her as a determined person who was poised to go on to great things. She was the first religious woman to become an air force navigator, and was ambitious.

"She played the guitar, danced, played sports - she had many, many talents," said Mr Wilk.

Mr Shoham's family eulogised him as a kind man who they believed could have survived had he not helped others to safety and, for a time, carried Ms Ariel.

"Nadav's kindheartedness cost him his life," said his rabbi, Chaim Burgansky, at his funeral.

As mourning was under way for Ms Ariel, Mr Shoham and the other two who died, seven Israelis returned home with stories of their narrow escape from the storm which killed at least 39 people.

Several of them had apparently stayed alive by taking what many would consider a counter-intuitive decision.

Instead of accepting an offer of help to safety, they stayed in a tea vendor's vacated wooden shack. They talked to each other to stay awake, and once the worst of the blizzard had passed, tried to reach safety. Before setting out the next morning, they left a note at the shack requesting help, and sent another with a local man who had been passing on horseback. This second note - written in Hebrew - was delivered to Israeli trekkers lower down the mountain, who triggered rescue efforts by calling the Israeli embassy.

"We just had to be together and warm our bodies together covered with a blanket we found there," said Maya Ora, talking to reporters in Nepal. "Really we saved each other's lives."

She said that even when they left the tea shack after a freezing night, the show was waist high and "you couldn't see the way, we didn't know the way". They walked for eight hours until they had phone reception, enabling them to liaise with rescue forces. "All the time I thought I was going to die," she said, and described her survival as a "miracle".

In the same interview, another Israeli, Linor Kagan, recounted how a local guide had "dragged" her to safety.

One Israeli hiker was buried in snow with little more than a hand poking out when fellow Israelis chanced upon him. "We came closer and saw there was a living person there," Tom Selah told the Ynet news site. "We pulled him out of the snow and immediately realised his situation was very serious." Two of the Israelis who found him are medical students and successfully treated him for hypothermia.