NEW DELHI – Treacherous conditions forced India’s military Wednesday toabort an aerial attempt to recover the bodies of eight climbers fearedkilled high in the Himalayas, officials said.
An Air Force helicopter took off early Wednesday carrying eliteparamilitary mountaineers to conduct what officials described as a “veryhigh-risk” operation at more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet).
They were trying to retrieve the bodies of four Britons, two Americans, oneIndian and one Australian believed to have been killed in an avalanche lastweek on Nanda Devi, India’s second-highest mountain.
On Monday helicopters spotted from the air what officials believe to befive bodies and their scattered mountaineering gear. The remains of theother three climbers were thought to be nearby.
But on Wednesday, the helicopter had to return to base after making threefailed attempts to hover over the spot and airdrop the soldiers from theIndo Tibetan Border Police paramilitary mountain force.
The aircraft was hindered by turbulent winds, the risk of furtheravalanches, the bowl-shaped terrain, the high altitude, and the fact thatthere was only one possible approach route to the site.
“When a chopper enters into such places, they have to also consider areturn path, which was unavailable in this case, so the pilots decided notto take any risk,” local district magistrate Vijay Kumar Jogdande toldreporters.
The officer said they would launch another aerial operation and alsoattempt to send a ground mission to reach the spot, something that wouldtake a week to prepare and acclimatize for.
Fresh snowfall may also hamper the recovery.
– Worse than Everest –
The originally 12-strong team — four Britons were rescued after separatingfrom the main group — was led being by experienced British climber MartinMoran and had permission to climb the eastern peak of Nanda Devi.
But a Facebook post by Moran’s mountaineering firm on May 22 said that theyplanned to attempt “an unclimbed peak” around 6,500 metres (21,300 feet)high.
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“This mountain range is more difficult to scale than Mount Everest. Theyknowingly risked their lives after changing their plans without informingthe authorities,” an official involved in the operation told AFP Tuesday oncondition of anonymity.
“The permission was granted for Nanda Devi east, and any diversion isillegal. We were completely unaware of their changed plan and that turnedfatal,” he said.
The two groups last communicated with each other on May 26, a day beforeheavy snow fell and massive avalanches hit the heights.
When the eight climbers failed to report back to the base camp, the otherfour launched a search before alerting Indian authorities, who started amajor operation.
A military source said the climbers may have fallen from an ice ridge or anoverhanging mass of snow during the avalanches.
“There must have been some error of judgement and they must have fallenfrom a great height along with the entire snow cornice. It must have beenlike falling from a 10-storey building,” the source told AFP.
“They took a different route for which they didn’t have permission. It istheir adventurism which cost them their lives,” the source said.
Hundreds of climbers from across the world visit India to scale mountainsacross the Himalayan chain, and the peaks in Nanda Devi sanctuary areconsidered among the toughest.
The eight climbers have been named as John McLaren, Rupert Whewell andUniversity of York lecturer Richard Payne from Britain, US nationalsAnthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel, Australian Ruth McCance and Indian guideChetan Pandey.
McCance’s husband Trent Goldsack told Australian media that her lastcommunication to him had been a text message saying: “OK at base camp.”-APP/AFP
