MYAGDI, Oct 16: The bodies of five Russian climbers who lost their lives during an ascent of Dhaulagiri, the seventh-highest mountain in the world, have been collected and sent to Kathmandu.
Bharat Shrestha, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) at the District Police Office in Myagdi, said that the bodies of the climbers who lost their lives in an accident at an altitude of 7,100 meters on the mountain located in Mudhi, Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality-4, have been collected and sent to Kathmandu.
“All the bodies have been transported from the site via helicopter; there were challenges in retrieving the bodies due to adverse weather,” Shrestha said. According to him, a team of Sherpas collected the bodies from the risky location using an Altitude Air helicopter.
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A team of five Sherpas, led by Mingma Sherpa, the operator of Seven Summit Trek, was assigned to recover the bodies. By 11AM today, one body had been brought down to the Italian base camp, and preparations were underway to collect and bring the remaining bodies to the base camp, according to DSP Shrestha.
After staying at the high camp of the base camp for the ascent of Dhaulagiri, they lost contact from an altitude of 7,600 meters at 11 AM on October 7. According to the police, the bodies of Alexander Dusheyko, Oleg Kurgulov, Chistikov Vladimir, Nosenko Mikhail, and Shpilevoz Dmitri were found in the afternoon of October 9.
After encountering difficulties in landing the helicopter at the incident site, the rescuers descended by rope from the helicopter to reach the location of the bodies. It is suspected that the accident may have been caused by an avalanche, strong winds, or other factors.
Chistikov Vladimir, who was with the climbers, was rescued from the first camp. He had reached the fourth camp but, unable to go any higher, he descended and was waiting at the camp. After the rescue, he was taken to Kathmandu.
