Kangchenjunga: Ramesh and Rudra heli-rescued, Biplab and Kuntal dead on summit slopes

Nirmal Purja along with Mingma David and Geshman Tamang, on their way down from the Summit (summit time: 15 May 11:19am) started the rescue operation immediately after they found Biplab and his Sherpa at 8450m. "Whilst descending we met an Indian climber (Biplop)[Biplab] at 8450m with his guide; both had ran out of oxygen (O2) and needed rescuing. We gave them our spare O2 and started the rescue mission," Purja Says. "After descending 150m, we found another climber (Kuntal), who was left behind by his guide and his team. Both were clients of Peak Promotion. I gave him my own O2 and continued with the rescue mission," Purja added.

However, their sincere and heroic effort could not save these two lives as the rescuer did not get any support from Camp-4 where approximately 50 climbers were staying that time. "There were many climbers, approx 50 on Kangchenjunga this season. Both lives could have been saved if someone from those many climbers had came forward to help. The Project Possible team needed help to save lives but got none," he regretted.

As we reported earlier, two critically injured Indian climbers – Biplab Baidya (48) and Kuntal Karar (46) were left with almost no possibility of being evacuated alive. They are believed to have breathed their last above Camp-4 while suffering from altitude sickness leading to HAPE and snow blindness.

Ramesh Roy, another frostbitten climber from the same team, was also rescued by the Sherpas and brought to Camp-4 at around 10pm on the summit day. Though his strength was on the verge of declining, it was reported that he, along with his two other teammates - Rudra Prasad Halder and Sk Sahabuddin, have descended to Camp-2 yesterday. Rudra Prasad also suffered from frostbite. Sahabuddin was fit and has reached the Base camp safely in the evening of May 16.

Agency is now planning to recover the remains of two deceased climbers soon. As Keshab Prasad Paudyal, Agency head told us, they are to send a team of acclimatised Sherpa soon for recovery process.

Besides this, Rodrigo Vivanco, a Chilean climber, has also gone missing from above Camp-4 of Kangchenjunga since yesterday after he reached the summit on 15th May evening, as reported by Pasang Sherpa from Nepal.

Hernan Leal, who happens to be the first mountaineer from Chile to reach the summit of Kangchenjunga expressed his grief saying, “Today we are living a tragedy of two deaths of fellow Indian mountaineers and the disappearance of Rodrigo Vivanco, our compatriot. Everything took another nuance today. I send condolences to the families of Kuntal Karar and Biplab Baidya, and we pray that they can find Rodrigo soon.”

Timeline (approximated):

14th May, Night - Five climbers (Sk Sahabuddin, Rudra Prasad Halder, Ramesh Roy, Kuntal Karar and Biplab Baidya) from Bengal were left for the summit from Camp-4.

15th May, Morning - Four climbers (Sk Sahabuddin, Rudra Prasad Halder, Ramesh Roy and Biplab Baidya) have reached the summit.

15th May, 11:19 - Nirmal Purja along with his project possible teammates have scaled Kangchenjunga.

15th May, 14:30 - Purja's team started the rescue mission of Biplab Baidya and Kuntal Karar from an elevation of 8450m and 8300m respectively.

15th May, 15:12 - One member of the Bengal team (possibly Rudra) sent an SOS to his family via GPS device asking for urgent help from an elevation of 8271m.

15th May Night- Purja's team called off the rescue operation due to lack of helps and O2.

15th May, 22:00 - Frostbitten Ramesh Roy brought to Camp-4.

16th May, Morning - Biplab Baidya and Kuntal Karar have died presumably in the early hours due to shortage of supplementary oxygen (as reported by the rescuer Nirmal Purja) leading to HAPE (High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema) on their way back from summit or near summit.

16th May, Evening - Ramesh and Rudra reached Camp-2. Another climber of the same team Sahabuddin has reached the Base Camp.

17th May, 06:30 - Two injured climbers Ramesh Roy and Rudra Prasad Halder have been heli-rescued from Camp-2.

Nirmal Purja's offical statement about the rescue:

"Myself and Mingma David Sherpa were dropped at Kangchenjunga base camp at 11am (14th May). We went for the summit push directly from the base camp at 13:00 that same day. With 5 sleep deprived days and battered by the weather en route to Dhaulagiri, we still made it to the summit of Kangchenjunga on 15th May at 11:19.

Whilst descending we met an Indian climber (Biplop)[Biplab] at 8450m with his guide; both had ran out of oxygen(O2) and needed rescuing. We gave them our spare O2 and started the rescue mission.

We immediately requested for a back up team from camp 4, with extra O2 if possible. After descending 150m, we found another climber (Kuntal), who was left behind by his guide and his team. Both were clients of Peak Promotion. I gave him my own O2 and continued with the rescue mission. After descending a few more meters, our guide Geshman Tamang then had to give his O2 away. So by 14:30 all my team had given away our own O2 to the two climbers.

If you can imagine how hard it is to operate a rescue mission at 8450m without O2. Every 15-20 mins, I was on the radio asking for help with O2.

I was told 3 Sherpas were coming up with O2, which never happened. I was told this every time I radioed asking. This seriously impacted my team and was a huge risk to life.

Geshman started developing mild HAPE and his feet started to freeze. I sent him back down. By this point we had sadly lost Kuntal due to no back up of extra O2. The wind started picking up, but we continued rescuing Biplab.

One of the strongest sherpas, Mingma appeared to be having HACE (High-altitude Cerebral Edema). We could not afford to have another casualty with NO HELP coming up so I sent Mingma down leaving behind only Dawa and myself with No O2 to perform the rescue.

There were many climbers, approx 50 on Kangchenjunga this season. Both lives could have been saved if some climber had dared to help. The Project Possible team needed help to save lives but got none."

Biplab Baidya and Kuntal Karar (L to R)

*The article was last updated: 11am, 17-05-2019