Kathmandu: Five Russian climbers attempting to climb Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest peak, lost their lives in a devastating incident.
As per the Department of Tourism of Nepal, the permit issuing authority, the climbers who had gone missing were found dead at an altitude of 7,600 metres on Tuesday afternoon.
"The search and rescue team has located the body. We are in the process of retrieving it. We had tried to search for the eight climbers on Monday but the weather didn't permit," Rakesh Gurung, Director of the Department of Tourism told ANI over the phone.
As per the official, those climbers were part of a 14-member group of Russian citizens who arrived in Kathmandu about three weeks ago to climb the mountain. The expedition organiser IAM trekking agency also released the names of the climbers who are now confirmed dead.
As per the expedition organiser, Aleksandr Dusheyko, Oleg Kruglov, Chistikov Vladimir, Nosenko Mikhail, and Shpilevoz Dmitri are the names of the deceased climbers. The group that was attempting for the summit lost contact with eight of its members on Sunday night. On Tuesday, a helicopter from Heli Everest, deployed to search for the missing ones, found two climbers at Base Camp and one at Camp I.
Later, the helicopter found the bodies of other five climbers on Tuesday afternoon, the official confirmed. "We have received the confirmation that the bodies have been located in the Dhaulagiri I. In lack of experts and equipment to retrieve the body, it wasn't possible for today. The bodies are still out there in the mountain," Deputy Superintendent of Police- Bharat Shrestha, at District Police Office, Myagdi told ANI over the phone.
The Dhaulagiri-I has an elevation of 8,168 metres. The team of Russian climbers had started on Sunday night at 11 pm (Local Time) but lost contact as they crossed the elevation of 8,000 metres.
Notably, Nepal this year has issued the permit to 14 male climbers to summit Mount Dhaulagiri for the autumn expedition.
—ANI