Bodies of 7 mountaineers flown to Pithoragarh

Bodies of seven mountaineers, who died on their way to Nanda Devi East peak more than one month ago, were flown in here on Wednesday.

They were first brought to Munsiyari by Cheetah helicopters from camp one located at a height of 15,600 feet and then to Naini Saini airport in Pithoragarh by another IAF copter, District Magistrate V K Jogdande said.

The bodies will be taken to Medical College Haldwani for post-mortem and identification, he said.

Eight mountaineers had set out on an expedition of the 7,434-metre-high peak but were reported missing on May 25, the day they were to reach their base camp. One of them is still missing.

The ill-fated expedition was led by well-known British mountaineer Martin Moran, who had scaled the peak twice.

The other members of the team are John Charles McLaren, Richard Payne and Rupert James Whewell (from the UK), Ruth Margaret McCance (Australia), Anthony Edward Sudekum and Ronald Isaac Beimel (US), and liaison officer Chetan Pandey.

ITBP climbers had to dig out the bodies, which included that of a woman climber, buried under the snow on the western ridge of the peak towards the Pindari glacier on June 23.