Nanda Devi: Indian Mountaineering Foundation team to set off today to retrieve climbers' bodies via land routes

To retrieve the bodies of five climbers, a 14-member team of mountaineer will set off Tuesday via the land route. Last month, the climbers died on way to the Nanda Devi East peak.

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) will send the team from Pindari glacier side in Bageshwar district, said Bageshwar Superintendent of police Lokeshwar Singh, reported PTI. 

Here's what has happened so far:

On June 3, the bodies were spotted by IAF helicopters near an unscaled peak close to the Nanda Devi East peak.

The decision to bring back the bodies by the land route was taken last week following IAF helicopters' repeated failure to retrieve them amid the high altitude turbulence and bad weather. Before the onset of monsoon, which could make the task more challenging, the IMF had sought the state government's permission for the expedition.
Since May 25, an eight-member team of mountaineers, including seven foreign nationals, on its way to Nanda Devi East peak in Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand, was reported missing. The three other mountaineers are yet to be traced. The team was led by well-known British climber Martin Moran. It included three other climbers from the UK, two from the US and one from Australia, besides an officer from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi. The missing climbers are Martin Moran, John McLaren, Richard Payne and Rupert Havel from the UK, Anthony Sudecam and Rachel Bimmel from the US, Ruth Macrain from Australia and IMF's Chetan Pandey, reported the news agency.

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