Indian climber's body retrieved from Everest after a year

A team of Sherpas on Wednesday retrieved the body of Indian mountaineer Gautam Ghosh who died of high altitude sickness last year while ascending Mt Everest, the world's highest peak.

At least eight trained Sherpas from Seven Summit Treks (SST) recovered the body of Ghosh, a climber from West Bengal, from the Balcony area on Wednesday, the company's Managing Director Mingma Sherpa told the Himalayan Times.

The West Bengal government, in coordination with the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, employed the SST team for retrieving the bodies of Paresh Nath and Gautam Ghosh which were lying above 8,000 metres in the mountain's 'death zone', Mingma Sherpa added.

The team has retrieved Ghosh's body and descended to Camp IV, according to him.

"The Sherpas will attempt to bring Paresh Nath's body to Camp IV tomorrow (Thursday)," Mingma Sherpa told the newspaper.

In the last season, the rescuers had only traced the body of Paresh Nath but they couldn't locate Ghosh in the 'death zone'.

Among the four climbers of their team who went missing on May 21 last year, Sunita Hazra was located the next day and taken to hospital but another climber, Subash Paul, died while being rescued.

Ghosh's family and friends have already arrived in Kathmandu to receive the body.

"After retrieving Nath's body, both will be airlifted to Kathmandu from Camp II," Mingma Sherpa said, adding that the Sherpa team would also try to recover another climber, Ravi Kumar's, body from South Col next week.

--IANS

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