The bodies of seven mountaineers killed on the way to Nanda Devi East Peak in May were brought down on Wednesday, ending an operation that involved the ITBP climbers and the IAF helicopters.
It took the ITBP team a total of 500 hours over 15 days to bring the mortal remains back so that the families of the deceased could find a closure of the tragedy.
Two base camps
The bodies were flown to the Pithoragarh’s Naini Saini airport in IAF helicopters from a base camp at an altitude of 15,250 ft. in the mountains, where a 15-member team of the ITBP climbers had brought them down on their shoulders from another base camp at 18,000 ft.
The bodies were first spotted by the IAF’s search planes on June 3, days after they were reported missing on May 25.
Following the detection of the bodies, lying partially buried in a terrain too difficult to be retrieved in IAF’s choppers, the ITBP launched its “daredevil” mission on June 13 and managed to reach them on foot after an “arduous” trekking and climbing operation. They first brought the bodies to the first base camp at 18,000 ft and then to a second one at lower altitude.