Nanda Devi: Indian Air Force spotted 5 bodies today during aerial-recce

Ruth McCane from Australia, John Mclaren, Rupert Whewell, Richard Payne from United Kingdom, Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel from the United States.

There was also an Indian liaison officer present in the team, alongside the Indian mountaineer-guide Chetan Pandey. As reported by the British Mountain Guides, one of the original 12 members, fell ill and therefore, went back to United States.

This expedition was sponsored by M/s Himalayan Run and Trek Ltd. New Delhi and was led by England’s one of the highly accomplished alpinist Martin Moran. Previously, it was reported that they went missing  en route climbing Nanda Devi East which was clarified yesterday on the Social Media handle of Moran Mountain that they were attempting to climb a virgin unnamed peak at an elevation of 6477m. On 25^th May, the deceased team last updated the Moran family about their plan of final summit push on 26^th May to this unclimbed peak from a camp at 5400m. Mark Thomas, who was leading another team of three to Nanda Devi East, immediately descended to Base Camp to co-operate the Indian Air Force for aerial search. As per the latest report, British climbers Zachary Qauin, Kate Armstrone, Ian Wade, alongside Mark Taomas himself, accompanied Indian Air Force (IAF) to conduct the helicopter-recce from Pithoragarh. Mark was rescued from the Nanda Devi East Base Camp on Sunday along with three aforementioned climbers.

A while ago, in a conversation with Dream Wanderlust, Dr. Vijay Kumar Jogdande, the District Magistrate of Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, has conveyed an update on the rescue operation as follows:

Q: Is there any recent update on the missing row of eight climbers on Nanda Devi East?

A: Today, Indian Air Force has conducted a helicopter recce above the avalanche-hit area. It is near Nanda Devi East peak itself. During this recce (lasted around 2 and a half hours), we could spot 5 dead bodies.

Q: Which is the exact area where you located all the 5 bodies at?

A: These bodies were found at least 500-600m down below Nanda Devi East peak. As per the Facebook update, shared by the family of Martin Moran yesterday, they were going to climb an unnamed peak at an elevation of 6477m.

Q: Is there anything else you would want to add in?

A: Yes, right now our concern is to retrieve their bodies.

Q: How precisely are you planning to do that?

A: Firstly, it is a very difficult terrain all together which I said before, is at above 5000m. Therefore, we are preparing a technical assessment alongside the Indian Army and the ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) who are supposed to send a team to retrieve these bodies. As soon as we get the assessment plan from them, we can update you further on this.

Q: When exactly are they going to start the rescue operation?

A: It is expected that we can retrieve the mortal remains within 2-3 days.

Yesterday in an exclusive interview with the Special Commandant of SDRF (State Disaster Response Force of Uttarakhand), Tripti Bhatt assured us await positive news since the aerial-recce and land-rescue were already underway. Her conversation with Dream Wanderlust yesterday in the afternoon is as follows:

Q. Can you please brief us about the rescue operation happened today and specify whether there was any heli-rescue taken place?

A: There were helicopters sent in the morning for aerial-recce twice.

Q. Did they manage to find anything?

A: Rescue operation is still under process.

Q. Is there anything else you can let me know about the land rescue operation?

A: One team has moved already for the land rescue operation and the other is about to start at their earliest possible. Today, we've moved one SDRF Team from Dehradun consisting a team of skilled mountaineers and satellite trackers with them from Dehradun to Pithoragarh.

Q. How many people have taken part in the rescue operation so far?

A. The team that has moved today already, has 14 members from SDRF and local administration for land rescue. Besides, the team that we've sent, consists of 4-5 skilled mountaineers.

Q. Did they already reach Nanda Devi East Base Camp?

A. As I am told, one team has already reached but I'll have to confirm which one. Tomorrow, another ITBP Team will join the land rescue team, as per the latest information received.

2 days ago, the Polish Anniversary Expedition team had also joined to initiate the rescue mission alongside the SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) and ITBP (Tibetan Border Police).

According to the messages (at IST 19.52 & 20.01 on June 1^st , 2019) received by GPS Communication Device of the polish team that was aiming to climb Nanda Devi East (also known as Sunanda Devi in India) to mark the 80th anniversary of the first ascent on Nanda Devi East, started the rescue operation of the missing climbers from Martin Moran and Mark Moran’s expedition team, under the leadership of Jaroslaw Gawrysiak (Jarek).

“Polish climbers from the anniversary expedition are on their way to rescue missing climbers from Martin Moran's expedition on Nanda Devi East” – Message received by Dream Wanderlust from the Polish team

View of Nanda Devi East summit and its South ridge. (Courtesy: Anindya Mukherjee, from NDE 2013 Expedition)