Rescue chopper unable to reach bodies on Himalayan mountain

In this photo provided by the Indo Tibetan Border Police force or ITBP, a senior officer ITBP wishes best luck to the team of their soldiers before they set to leave to rescue and retrieve the bodies of international climbers, in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand state, India, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Indian officials are working on a plan to retrieve five bodies believed to be mountaineers from a team of international climbers that went missing on a notoriously dangerous Himalayan mountain. Local officials say all eight of the climbers that disappeared May 26 on Nanda Devi East are presumed dead, and the five bodies photographed by air Monday are thought to be from the missing expedition. The missing team includes four Britons, two Americans, an Australian and an Indian liaison officer. (Indo Tibetan Border Police force via AP)

In this Oct. 7, 2016, photo provided by Juniper Outdoor Pursuits Centre Pvt. Ltd., shows Nanda Devi twin peaks, seen from Chaukori in Uttarakhand, India. Indian air force pilots have resumed a search over a Himalayan mountain for a team of mostly foreign climbers missing since late May. The fourth day of the search on Tuesday was taking place in the northern state of Uttarakhand after five bodies were spotted in the snow in high-resolution photos taken Monday. (Maninder Kohli/Juniper Outdoor Pursuits Centre Pvt. Ltd via AP)

NEW DELHI – Indian officials on Wednesday were reconsidering a plan to retrieve five bodies believed to be members of a team of international climbers that went missing on a notoriously dangerous Himalayan mountain that a rescue helicopter was unable to reach.

All eight of the climbers who disappeared May 26 on Nanda Devi East are presumed dead, and the five bodies photographed by air Monday are thought to be from the missing expedition, said Vijay Kumar Jogdande, an official in Uttarakhand state, where the mountain is located.

The mountaineers, led by veteran British climber Martin Moran, had set out to reach the top of an unclimbed, unnamed 6,477-meter (21,250-foot) ridge, but lost contact with their base camp after an avalanche swept through a section of the mountain.

Nanda Devi East is a twin peak of Nanda Devi, India's second-highest mountain, and the two are connected by a razor-sharp 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) ridge at an elevation of 6,666 meters (22,000 feet).

Indo-Tibetan Border Police, who are responsible for rescues in the range where the peaks are located, called off the operation because of the high elevation, which a helicopter was unable to reach after three attempts, spokesman Vivek Pandey said.

Officials had devised a plan to use helicopters and a ground team to retrieve the bodies, spotted at an altitude of 5,000 meters (16,404 feet), and to search for the three other mountaineers. Pandey said the rescue team returned to the town of Pithoragarh on Wednesday afternoon to reconsider its strategy.

The mountaineers began their ascent on May 13, according to Moran Mountain, Moran's Scotland-based company. The team includes four Britons, two Americans, an Australian and an Indian liaison officer. Before attempting to reach the peak of Nanda Devi East, the team had set out to climb the slightly smaller ridge.

Maninder Kohli, a mountaineer who runs a trekking company from New Delhi that has taken groups to Nanda Devi East base camp, said the snow level in the Indian Himalayas this year has been abnormally high.

"Apparently the walk-up to the base camp alone was a tedious task because of the snow accumulation," he said.

Kohli said the typical route to the peak is along the southeast ridge, which Polish mountaineers used on the first documented ascent in 1939.

Moran and another mountaineer made an unsuccessful attempt over an unproven northeastern route in 2015.

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Associated Press writer Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, India, contributed to this report.