Tragic, Nearly A Month After Missing, Bodies Of Seven Mountaineers Recovered From Nanda Devi Peak

News24xx.com -  A team of climbers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has recovered seven bodies believed to be of the mountaineers who went missing from an unnamed peak near Nanda Devi East in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.

The bodies, including that of a woman, were dug out from under the snow, on Sunday, while the search for the eighth missing mountaineer is still on. 

The mountaineers, four British, two American and one each Australian and an Indian were a part of a 12-member-team which was attempting to climb a previously unclimbed 17,800-foot-high peak near Nanda Devi.

It is believed that the team was hit by an avalanche during their expedition on May 26.

Four mountaineers, who had split from the main group, had survived the avalanche and were rescued on June 2. 

Since then the ITBP and the Indian Air Force had been searching for the missing climbers but to no avail. 

Though the bodies were spotted on June 3, multiple attempts to drop the rescuers on the peak from the helicopter had failed, forcing them to go on foot. 

"Aerial searches for the climbers were repeatedly hindered earlier by turbulent winds, the risk of avalanches and the bowl-shaped terrain. The team took over five hours on Sunday to retrieve the bodies,” ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said.

 

 

 

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