NEW DELHI: A Polish mountaineer died on Thursday during an operation to rescue him from a Himalayan mountain stretch in Uttarakhand, three days after he went missing with another climber on an expedition to scale a 5,900-feet peak, officials said.
The other climber is still missing, said Vishal Ranjan, an official of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi, around 300 km from capital Dehradun.
Though death of mountaineers is rare in Uttarakhand, expeditions to Himalayan peaks in India and Nepal have led to several disasters over the years with climbers falling into snow-covered crevices or due to altitude sickness in stretches known as the ‘death zones’ where the air is very thin.
Uttarakhand with several mountain peaks is a major attraction for climbers from across the world.
Officials said the two mountaineers – identified as L John and J Michael – went missing close to Mt Shivling on Tuesday after their climbing rope snapped. The dead climber is said to have made a cave of snow to protect himself from the fierce winds cave in the high Himalayas.
The identity of the dead climber is yet to be ascertained as details of the rescue mission were very sketchy.
{{/usCountry}}The identity of the dead climber is yet to be ascertained as details of the rescue mission were very sketchy.
{{/usCountry}}Officials quoted rescuers as saying that the climber slipped and fell when he was being pulled over. “He was just around 300 meters away from us,” an official said.
Ranjan said the survived for around 72 hours “in sub-zero temperature and perhaps without food or water”.
Officials said the rescue mission launched on Wednesday by a joint team of the army and NIM climbing experts scoured the mountains on air and from a helicopter before contact was established with him through a solar-powered walkie-talkie he was carrying.
The duo was part of a five-member Polish group that attempted to scale Mt Shivling. Three members returned to the base camp on Tuesday and informed the Polish embassy about the trapped mountaineers.
The embassy contacted the district administration on the same night seeking help, Uttarkashi superintendent of police Daddan Pal said.
The army launched the rescue operation with a team of NIM mountaineers, known for their proficiency in high-altitude rescue operations, said col Ajay Kothiyal, who was overseeing the operation.
Three mountaineers with medicines and rations, enough to last for the next 72 hours, were earlier airdropped at the advance camp to bring back the survivor, said Col Kothiyal.