Rescue team yet to find two Mt Everest climbers

The team that has gone to Nepal to carry out the rescue operation is still in dark and clueless about the whereabouts of the two mountaineers — Goutam Ghosh and Paresh Nath — who had collapsed while descending from the Everest summit. 

A team of sherpas engaged by the special team comprising senior officials of the state government started the rescue operation on Wednesday but they are yet to reach the spot where they might find the bodies of two mountaineers. 

Experts feel that it is not possible for any mountaineer to be alive without oxygen in the area where the two climbers had collapsed. The oxygen cylinder that the climbers were carrying might have exhausted many hours ago. 

Another mountaineer from Bengal Rajib Bhattacharya who had gone missing and later died while descending after successfully scaling Mount Dhaulagiri has been recovered by a rescue team from West Bengal. 

A special team from the state had reached Kathmandu on Tuesday and engaged 6 sherpas to trace the two mountaineers. But the rescue operations could not be started on Tuesday due to the inclement weather. The recue team of Sherpas started climbing Everest but yet to reach to the ‘death zone’ where the two mountaineers had collapsed. 

Sunita Hazra, another member of the expedition team who was rescued in a distressed condition has been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Nepal. She had suffered frost bite in her hands. 

The possibility of rescuing the two missing mountaineers alive is slim because it is really difficult in the extreme conditions where nobody can survive without oxygen. The cylinder that the mountaineers carry can supply oxygen for nearly 20 hours but two days have passed since the two climbers had gone missing. 

It was learnt that the rescue team had used helicopter to reach to the base camp from where the Sherpas had started climbing the mountain. They believe that two might have been traced in the death zone. Family members of the two climbers are spending sleepless night as they are yet to know their whereabouts.