NEW DELHI: A team of Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) on Tuesday reached the site on India's second-highest mountain where seven bodies of climbers were located by the ITBP on June 23.
The IMF team will join the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in searching the eighth body and work on a joint plan to bring back the bodies of the climbers, according to IMF spokesman Amit Chowdhury.
Bodies of seven climbers killed in an avalanche near Nanda Devi were retrieved on Sunday and the search for the 8th missing person is still going on.
"A 12-member IMF team had started walking from Khati village on June 12 and approached the site from the Pindari glacier side, while the ITBP team was dropped by IAF choppers at the Nanda Devi Base camp on June 15. Both teams have had a difficult time due to bad weather. While the ITBP team reached the site on Sunday, the IMF team reached there today," said Chowdhury.
The eight climbers - four from Britain, two from the United States, and one each from Australia and India - were reported missing on May 31 after they failed to return to their base camp near Nanda Devi.
The climbers were attempting to scale an unnamed, previously unclimbed 6,477 metre (21,250 feet) peak near Nanda Devi when their route was hit by a "sizeable avalanche", the company that organised the expedition, Moran Mountain, said.
The recovered bodies, which include that of an Indian and a female climber, are yet to be formally identified, police had said.
It is yet to be decided whether the team will need to airlift out the bodies that are currently at 18,000 feet.
Almost three weeks ago, some of the bodies were spotted by Indian Air Force helicopters but the difficult terrain and poor weather conditions had prevented recovery.
Officials had said the location of the bodies suggested that they may have changed course and taken a route they had not initially planned.
Indian authorities had previously identified the eight missing as expedition leader Martin Moran, John McLaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne, all from Britain, Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States, Ruth McCance from Australia, and liaison officer Chetan Pandey from the IMF.
It has been one of the deadliest climbing seasons in the Himalayas for several years.
More than 20 people have been killed in the mountains, including at least 11 on Mount Everest, the world's highest peak that has seen several fatalities in 2019 due to poor weather conditions, inexperienced climbers and overcrowding.
Nanda Devi, at 7,816 metres (25,643 feet), and its sister mountain, Nanda Devi East, are among the world's most challenging peaks and only a handful of people have climbed them.
(With agency inputs)
The IMF team will join the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in searching the eighth body and work on a joint plan to bring back the bodies of the climbers, according to IMF spokesman Amit Chowdhury.
Bodies of seven climbers killed in an avalanche near Nanda Devi were retrieved on Sunday and the search for the 8th missing person is still going on.
"A 12-member IMF team had started walking from Khati village on June 12 and approached the site from the Pindari glacier side, while the ITBP team was dropped by IAF choppers at the Nanda Devi Base camp on June 15. Both teams have had a difficult time due to bad weather. While the ITBP team reached the site on Sunday, the IMF team reached there today," said Chowdhury.
The eight climbers - four from Britain, two from the United States, and one each from Australia and India - were reported missing on May 31 after they failed to return to their base camp near Nanda Devi.
The climbers were attempting to scale an unnamed, previously unclimbed 6,477 metre (21,250 feet) peak near Nanda Devi when their route was hit by a "sizeable avalanche", the company that organised the expedition, Moran Mountain, said.
The recovered bodies, which include that of an Indian and a female climber, are yet to be formally identified, police had said.
It is yet to be decided whether the team will need to airlift out the bodies that are currently at 18,000 feet.
Almost three weeks ago, some of the bodies were spotted by Indian Air Force helicopters but the difficult terrain and poor weather conditions had prevented recovery.
Officials had said the location of the bodies suggested that they may have changed course and taken a route they had not initially planned.
Indian authorities had previously identified the eight missing as expedition leader Martin Moran, John McLaren, Rupert Whewell and Richard Payne, all from Britain, Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States, Ruth McCance from Australia, and liaison officer Chetan Pandey from the IMF.
It has been one of the deadliest climbing seasons in the Himalayas for several years.
More than 20 people have been killed in the mountains, including at least 11 on Mount Everest, the world's highest peak that has seen several fatalities in 2019 due to poor weather conditions, inexperienced climbers and overcrowding.
Nanda Devi, at 7,816 metres (25,643 feet), and its sister mountain, Nanda Devi East, are among the world's most challenging peaks and only a handful of people have climbed them.
(With agency inputs)
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