Recovery mission to recommence tomorrow on Nanda Devi

Q. Can you please provide us with the latest update on the rescue operation?

A. ITBP has drafted a plan to go ahead with the rescue operation starting from 12th June onwards, and decided to continue that up until 2nd July. The team would comprise of members from ITBP (Indo-Tibetian Border Police), SDRF (State Disaster Response Force), and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force).

Q. Can you please elaborate on the arrangement of the current rescue team?

A. This team involves a total of 34 individuals. 18 of them, from the Base Camp, will advance to the avalanche-hit region to retrieve the bodies and the rest will stay at the Second Base Camp as a back-up team. There would be one medical team, alongside a communication team and necessary other folks in position. A recovery strategy has already been thought-out and submitted by ITBP. We have also requested the IMF to provide support during the rescue operation.

Q. Where would the rescue operation be conducted from?

A. Our camp would be set up at the Second Base Camp at an altitude of 4800m from Pithoragarh side.

Q. Is there any possibility of Mr. Mark Thomas (Deputy Leader of the original 12-member group) being involved in the rescue operation?

A. Considering that he is a foreigner, permission needs to be taken from the embassy in New Delhi. As per their command, no foreign national would be involved in the rescue operation.

Courtesy: Google Earth 

Location of Peak-6477m on Contour Map

Team members. Courtesy: Instagram/Moran Mountain

Previous Timeline of the Rescue Mission

31^st May

An eight-member team, including four Britons, two Americans, one Australian, and one liaison officer from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, had left Munsiyari on May 13. The district administration has sent a rescue team in search of them after they failed to return to the Base Camp on Friday, May 31^st, as scheduled according to their proposed itinerary*. The rescue team comprises SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund), police, and medical personnel.

This expedition was sponsored by M/s Himalayan Run and Trek Ltd., New Delhi and was led by England’s legendary alpinist Martin Moran, alongside Mark Thomas, as the deputy leader.

1^st June

According to the messages  (at IST 19.52 & 20.01 on 1^st June) received from the GPS Communication Device of the polish team that was aiming to climb Nanda Devi East (also known as Sunanda Devi in India) to honour the 80^th anniversary of the first ascent  by the Poles, had also reportedly joined the rescue mission of the missing climbers from Martin Moran and Mark Thomas's expedition team, under the leadership of Jaroslaw Gawrysiak (Jarek), alongside the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Accompanying specifics on this, are yet to be updated.

Polish Rescue Team Members were Jaroslaw Gawrysiak (Jarek), RafaÅ‚ Fronia, Anindya Mukherjee, Jan Lenczowski, BartÅ‚omiej Szeliga (Bartosz), Oswald Rodrigo Pereira.

Polish Team (courtesy: Anindya Mukherjee) 

2^nd June

In an Exclusive interview with Dream Wanderlust, SDRF Special Commandant of Uttarakhand, Tripti Bhatt, expressed optimistic anticipation of a successful rescue mission.

According to her, there were two helicopters sent in the morning for aerial-recce. To conduct the land rescue operation, one SDRF Team moved from Dehradun to Pithoragarh, consisting of 14 members, including 4-5 skilled mountaineers of SDRF and local administration with satellite trackers with them. As reported up till 2^nd June, another ITBP team was also supposed to join the land rescue team the next day. 

Previously, it was reported that they went missing en route climbing Nanda Devi East (7434m) which was clarified on 2^nd June in a statement by Martin Moran’s family that they were originally attempting to climb a virgin peak at an elevation of 6477m.

British Mountain Guides further updated on their website that, on 25th May, the deceased team last updated the Moran family about their plan of final summit push on 26th 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 an aerial search.

British climbers Zachary Qauin, Kate Armstrone, Ian Wade, alongside Mark Thomas himself, accompanied Indian Air Force to conduct the helicopter-recce and identified 5 bodies after they flew from Pithoragarh. Mark was rescued from the Nanda Devi East Base Camp on Sunday along with three aforementioned climbers.

Remains of the climbes as seen from chopper (Courtesy: PTI)

3^rd June

Amongst the eight-member team of mountaineers who went missing on their way to an unnamed peak (6477m) nearby 3-km radius of Nanda Devi East(7434m) in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district, five of them, had been spotted in an aerial-recce that lasted for 2 and a half hours, conducted by Indian Air Force, up above Nanda Devi in the morning around the avalanche-hit region. A technical assessment was documented in the presence of the Indian Army and the ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) who are supposed to send a team to retrieve these bodies to start the rescue operation tentatively within 2-3 days. 

"Two of the foreign mountaineers were taken up to the area where the climbers were missing and they brought back photographs which were analyzed and it was found that there were 5 bodies which could be seen after zooming in. IMF mountaineers were not taken up despite strong request and advice to the District Administration.", said Indian Mountaineering Foundation in a statement released on 8th June.

4^th June

“We will be going ahead once we get all the approvals. The recovery operation would be assisted by the help of ITBP and SDRF team. The time for resuming the recovery operation of the dead bodies cannot be predicted now. It would depend on the weather conditions and the time taken to receive all the approvals.", said Dr. Vijay Kumar Jogdande, in a fresh interview two days later, when Dream Wanderlust reached out to him to receive further updates.

While three out of eight bodies are yet to be located, serious concerns had been raised while a few media houses previously reported that this multi-national team had 'illegally' made their way to the unclimbed Peak-6477m, nearer to the ridge of Nanda Khat (6611m), while they only had the permission to climb Nanda Devi East (also known as Sunanda Devi in India).

To obtain a more informed understanding of this, Dream Wanderlust spoke to Retired Wing Commander of Indian Air Force - Amit Chowdhury, the former Honorary Secretary of Indian Mountaineering Foundation and one of its current Governing Council Members.

He clarified that even though they were only authorized to climb Nanda Devi East, a deviation of the route was possible. Given that the liaison officer Chetan Pandey himself was with their team. 

In presence of a liaison officer, they can be allowed to go to a different route and once they come back, they would have to inform the concerned authority in accordance with the standard protocol. 

Nanda Devi National Park

5^th June

Indian Air Force choppers failed to air-drop the ITBP team, due to heavy snowfall. Uttarakhand administration informed that the chopper went down to 5000m, trying to heli-drop the rescue team members.

Nonetheless, due to the raging airstream at high altitude, the aircraft decided to turn back, considering safety concerns after three one-after-another unsuccessful efforts until the afternoon.

Consequently, it was decided to postpone the mission until an alternative plan to retrieve these bodies are formulated.

6^th June

Since the location of the bodies were towards the Pindari glacier side, Indian Mountaineering Foundation had put forth that no ground rescue could logically be possible from the Nanda Devi East Base Camp. 

Hence, IMF had set up a team, comprising highly skilled mountaineers to launch this rescue operation right away back then which later, could never be possible due to the unresponsiveness, shown by the District Administrations of Pithoragarh and Bageshwar.

7^th June

Upon the sheer impassiveness in responding to the verbal and written requests to start the rescue mission, IMF had reached out to the Chief Secretary of Government of Uttarakhand, requesting to kickstart the pending operation as soon as possible. In their official statement, the IMF has raised serious concerns about the rescue operation since there are only 2 weeks left to the monsoon in the mountains, which can sternly effect the fruitfulness to further the rescue mission.

8^th June

Three members from the Polish Anniversary Expedition team - Rafal Fronia, Wojciech Flaczynski, and Oswald Rodrigo Pereira - made it up till 6000m, crossing over Longstaff Pass. More details are to be followed.

11^th June

No attempt was made for rescue, nevertheless, aerial recce has been conducted to articulate an alternative plan in the last 6 days for a ground rescue mission. It is reported that a Joint Retrieval Mission will take place, while helicopters are to be used to drop the rescuers, together with the ground team, which will retrieve the bodies.

Proposed Itinerary of the ill-fated team*:

Tuesday - 14th May: Trek from Lilam over Minsing Top (2900m); camp at a forest clearing at 2400m

Wednesday - 15th May: Trek up Gori Ganga gorge to camp at Nanda Pahar (2550m) (12km)

Thursday - 16th May: Trek to Martoli village (3350m) (18km) - at the junction of Lwan and Gori valleys

Friday - 17th May: Trek up Lwan valley to forest camp at 3850m (12km)

Saturday - 18th May: Morning trek to Base Camp at Bhital Gwar (4250m) (8km)

Sunday - 19th May – Thursday, 23rd May: Acclimatisation and training ascent of Nanda Lapak (5782m) (grade AD with one camp at 5000m), while Sherpas establish a route to Longstaff's Col on Nanda Devi East and stock camp

Friday - 24th May – Wed 29th May: Climb to camp on Longstaff's Col and push route over pinnacles to 6150m with fixed ropes

Thursday - 30th May - Fri 31st May: Rest at Base Camp

Saturday - 1st June - Sun 9th June: Summit attempts with camps at 5910m on Longstaff's Col, 6150m camp above.

  Nanda Devi East (Courtesy: Anindya Mukherjee; From 2014 Expedition on NDE)