Human remains believed to belong to five climbers who went missing in an avalanche on a mountain range in eastern Nepal have been located nearly nine months after the disaster, police said on Friday.
The five climbers have been missing since November last year. Their bodies were finally exposed this week at the Yalung Ri base camp in Rolwaling Valley as seasonal snow melted.
Deputy superintendent of police Manoj Kumar Lama of the Dolakha district police office said local residents first reported seeing the remains on Thursday.
A police team was flown towards Yalung Ri on Friday in an attempt to recover the remains, but worsening weather prevented the operation from going ahead, he said.
“The bodies could not be brought back because of poor weather conditions. They will be retrieved as soon as the weather improves,” Mr Lama said, according to The Kathmandu Post.
The remains have not yet been formally identified.
Police believe they are likely to be the five climbers who disappeared when an avalanche struck the mountain on 3 November last year, but their identities will only be established after recovery and examination.
The avalanche struck a climbing team making its way up the 5,630-metre peak in the Rolwaling range. Seven people were swept away, while other climbers who survived were airlifted to the capital Kathmandu.
The seven who were declared missing and presumed dead after the incident included five foreign climbers and two Nepali mountain guides.
The bodies of two climbers, Italian Paolo Cocco and Frenchman Christian Andre Manfredi, were recovered two days after the avalanche.
But the remaining victims – Italian-Canadian climber Marco Di Marcello, Italian Markus Kirchler, German Jakob Schreiber and Nepali mountain guides Padam Tamang and Mere Karki – could not be found as unstable snow and the continuing threat of further avalanches made the search dangerous, according to the Everest Chronicle.
Authorities now face the difficult task of bringing the bodies down from the mountain.
The Rolwaling Valley is one of Nepal’s most remote and avalanche-prone mountain regions, lying between the Gaurishankar and Melungtse peaks and is home to several Sherpa communities.
Yalung Ri, which rises to 5,630 metres, is considered a relatively accessible trekking peak and is used by climbers seeking to gain high-altitude experience.