Rescuers abort plan to retrieve bodies from Himalayas

KATHMANDU: Faced with unfavourable weather, Nepalese rescuers on Monday abandoned plans to retrieve the bodies of two Indian climbers who died while scaling Mount

KATHMANDU: Faced with unfavourable weather, Nepalese rescuers on Monday abandoned plans to retrieve the bodies of two Indian climbers who died while scaling Mount Everest and will now attempt to bring them down only next year.

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Rescue work was halted as the mountaineering season is over and it will not be possible to go to the mountain due to unfavourbale weather conditions, said Wangchhu Sherpa, managing director of Trekking Camp Nepal, that managed the expedition.

The two climbers, Paresh Nath and Goutam Ghosh, were near the summit of the 8,848metre mountain on May 21 when they lost contact with their team.

In all, three Indian climbers died while scaling the world’s highest peak this season.

The body of Subhas Paul was brought to Kathmandu last week. However, the bodies of Nath and Ghosh, who also died last week, could not be brought back as the monsoon season had started and the rescue efforts had to abandoned, Sherpa said. Paul died while descending from the summit after the climb.

This season, around 450 climbers successfully scaled the Everest.