When the mortal remains of Subrata Ghosh could be brought down was not clear even late on Saturday.
The schoolteacher from Ranaghat died on his way down from the summit of Mount Everest on Friday.
“He had made the summit push on Friday, the last day of a window of good weather. Till Sunday, no rescue effort can be mounted,” said Manoj Agarwala of Lion’s Club of Ranaghat West, which had partially funded the expedition.
“The chairman of Snowy Horizon, the Kathmandu agency that organised the expedition, told me that Subrata’s sherpa had tied the body with a safety belt according to protocol at a spot just below Hillary Step so it does not get dislocated,” he said.
The Bengal government, he said, had contacted the external affairs ministry, which has also got involved.
Though there is no official confirmation, an agency called Seven Summit Treks has reportedly been entrusted with the rescue mission.
Agarwala said this year, all Everest attempts have to be made by May 27.
“The Nepal government has given a deadline of May 29 for the base camp to be cleared. There are hundreds of climbers in queue to get to the summit. So, the rescue will be done either in between their attempts or after May 27,” he said.
Subrata’s cousin Sumitra Debnath, who did not go beyond the base camp, reached Kathmandu on Saturday, he added.
Rumpa Das, another Ranaghat schoolteacher who reached the summit from the team, was picked up by helicopter and brought down to the base camp, said veteran mountaineer Basanta Singha Roy of Mountaineering Association of Krishnanagar (MAK), which sent her.
“Though she had started coming down on her own, we did not take a chance as she was feeling weak,” Singha Roy said.
The team leader, Ashim Kumar Mondal, also from MAK, quit before the final push and reached the base camp on Thursday. “They will start the trek to the Lukla airport on Sunday to catch a flight to Kathmandu,” Singha Roy said.
Veteran mountaineer Debasish Biswas spoke to Rumpa on a sherpa friend’s wireless. “She said she was fine other than the weakness. But Subrata’s sherpa suffered chilblains, a low degree frost bite,” Biswas said.