Rescuers reach bodies of British climbers missing in Himalayas, official says
Written by News on 24/06/2019
Rescuers have reached the bodies of seven of eight climbers after a British-led team went missing in the Himalayas, an Indian official has said.
Veteran British mountaineer Martin Moran led the group of four Britons, two Americans, an Australian and an Indian on the expedition on Nanda Devi East.
Mr Moran’s Scotland-based company said contact with the team was lost on 26 May following an avalanche.
Vijay Jogdande, an administrator of Uttarakhand state, has said the bodies have yet to be identified.
Officials said they were all presumed dead.
Five bodies believed to be from the missing team were spotted by air nearly two weeks ago.
Mr Jogdande said the search for the missing eighth mountaineer will continue.
Paramilitary soldiers have formed part of ground expeditions after helicopter missions failed to reach the area.
The bodies will now be brought from where they were found at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) to base camp.
The group were scaling Nanda Devi, India’s second highest peak, and were due to return to their base camp in Munsiyari at end of May after a 17-day expedition.
The missing Britons have been named locally as Mr Moran, John McLaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne.
US nationals Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel, Australian Ruth McCance, and Indian guide Chetan Pandey are also missing.
Nigel Vardy, a mountaineer who has known Mr Moran for 20 years, described his friend as a “top of the range” climber who “knows the mountains, knows the area, knows what he is doing”.
He also told Sky News the pair had climbed together extensively, and Mr Moran was at “the top of his game”.
(c) Sky News 2019: Rescuers reach bodies of British climbers missing in Himalayas, official says
