Remains of ace mountaineer Dipankar Ghosh located

Kolkata/Kathmandu: The rescue team has been able to locate the body of ace mountaineer Dipankar Ghosh, who had gone missing on May 12 while coming down after successfully scaling the challenging Mount Makalu in Nepal. The team is now trying to bring down the body to Camp 2, from where the body can be airlifted to Kathmandu.

"The inclement weather had acted as a barrier in the rescue process and there was postponement for eight days. The six member Sherpa team has located the body at Camp 4. It is being brought down to Camp 2, from where the body can be airlifted to the base camp. If the weather does not turn hostile then the process will take another two to three days," said Ujjal Ray, a member of the advisory committee of the state Youth Affairs department.

A two member team from the state government led by noted mountaineer Debdas Nandy has been in Kathmandu from May 11 to supervise the search operation.

Two more Indian climbers have died on Mount Everest due to an hours-long 'traffic jam', taking the toll to 8 of the Indian mountaineers who perished in their expedition to the world's highest peak during this season. Nihal Bagwan, 27, and Kalpana Das, 49, died along with two other climbers above the 8,848-metre Mt Everest while descending the summit, the expedition organisers said.

'Traffic jam' occurs on Mt Everest when many climbers vie for the summit at the same time, and can be especially dangerous above 8,000 metres known as the 'death zone'.

Known as one of the most outstanding mountaineers, Dipankar Ghosh had undertaken 47 mountaineering expeditions, including Mount Everest, Mt Lhotse, Mt Kanchenjunga, Mt Annapurna-I, Mt Manaslu, Mt Dhaulagiri, and Mt Cho Oyu.

A resident of Bally in Howrah, Dipankar had left his residence on May 8 for the expedition of Mt Makalu, which is considered among the most dangerous and challenging peaks to summit.

The bodies of the other two Bengal mountaineers Kuntal Karar and Biplab Baidya, who died during a Kanchenjunga expedition, were brought down by the rescue team a few days ago. The autopsy of both the bodies has already been conducted and their mortal remains will be taken back to Kolkata by flight services from Kathmandu on Saturday afternoon.

Another mountaineer from the state Piyali Basak, who had gone to scale Mt Everest, is also expected to reach the city by Saturday. Basak suffered from lack of oxygen and funds on the last lap of her expedition and was compelled to call off her expedition and return to the base camp. Basak, a resident of Chandannagore in Hooghly, was the only mountaineer from the state who had gone on Everest expedition.

Meanwhile Nima Tshering Sherpa, one of the 14-member Sherpa team involved in the rescue work, was also reportedly killed on Friday. The exact reason for the accident which led to the sudden demise of Nima is yet to be clear.