Watch: Video Footage by ITBP Showing Last Moments of Nanda Devi Climbers

The ITBP on 8th July released a video clip showing the last moments of the eight mountaineers killed on way to the Nanda Devi East peak in Uttarakhand in May.

The video was shot by one of the mountaineers from his helmet-mounted camera just before the group was to summit the 7,434 meters high Nanda Devi East peak sometime in late May.

The video from May expedition shows all the eight members of the climbing team hooked in a line with a climbing rope even as the person who shot it swerves his head to record snowy, beautiful yet dangerous view of the peak, considered one of the most difficult mountains in the Indian Himalayan ranges.

Operation to save the mountaineers at Nanda Devi East

These bodies were found at an altitude of 18000 feet in the bowl below the peak they were attempting to climb. The bodies were then taken to a nearby safe site later that day but all efforts to airlift them failed due to attitude.

After a reconnaissance on June 29 and 30 by Indian Air Force helicopters, it was decided to take the bodies to a lower altitude first by ITBP search team so that they could be airlifted from there.

On July 1, ITBP mountaineers managed to take four bodies to the highest point of the ridge (18,800 feet) before they were brought down to Base Camp 1 helipad (15,250 feet).

The remaining three bodies were carried the next day to the same point first. All bodies were taken to Base Camp 1 temporary helipad on the evening of July 2. Then the bodies then airlifted to Munsyari and further to Pithoragarh on July 3 and handed over to the Pithoragarh district administration. The search operation was conducted under the supervision of APS Nimbadia,,Deputy Inspector General (DIG) ITBP.

Nanda Devi is India’s second highest mountain, is a two-peaked massif, forming a two-kilometer-long high ridge, oriented east-west. It is the 23rd-highest peak in the world.

The western summit is higher, while the eastern summit, called Nanda Devi East, is the lower one.

It was first climbed in 1936 by a British-American expedition, becoming the highest peak climbed by man until the 1950 ascent of Annapurna.