{"id":26944,"date":"2017-05-25T10:05:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T16:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=26944"},"modified":"2019-04-06T12:28:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:28:24","slug":"everest-2017-south-col-dead-body-report-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/25\/everest-2017-south-col-dead-body-report-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2017: South Col Dead Body Report was Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

The same people that reported 4 bodies – 2 Sherpas, 1 foreign woman and\u00a01 foreign male – were\u00a0found at the South Col now say\u00a0they got it all wrong.<\/p>\n

I spoke live with both key sources last night.<\/p>\n

Managing Director at Seven Summit Treks,\u00a0Mingma Sherpa<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>who provided the the information to\u00a0Himalayan Times<\/a>\u00a0reporter\u00a0Rajan Pokhrel<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>who wrote the story.\u00a0Both now say it was a mistake and were no 4 new bodies.<\/p>\n

I also confirmed\u00a0with another Nepali operator\u00a0Navin Trital<\/a>\u00a0plus\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>long time Everest climber and guide, Willie Benegas of Benegas Brothers<\/a>\u00a0contacted me from\u00a0the South Col and said no new bodies. He said he checked every<\/span> tent.<\/p>\n

Too Many\u00a0Bodies?<\/h3>\n

The best explanation is that the Seven Summits Treks Sherpas somehow “confused” seeing one body and thinking it was four. Assuming good intentions here, perhaps an\u00a0analogy with the “fog of war” is apt.<\/p>\n

the six Sherpas\u00a0were were sent to the South Col to retrieve the body of \u00a0Slovak climber\u00a0Vladimir Strba<\/a>\u00a0who died between\u00a0Balcony and South Col while climbing as independent with no Os. That retrieval was successful.<\/p>\n

Seven Summits Treks was\u00a0also\u00a0involved in retrieving body of West Bengal climber Gautam Ghosh from the South Col.<\/p>\n

Another body retrieval will soon start for Indian climber,\u00a0Ravi Kumar<\/a>, 27, who reportedly died from a\u00a0fall near the Balcony after summiting. He became separated from his guide from Arun Treks.<\/p>\n

First Report<\/h3>\n

The original article on finding four bodies at the South Col reported:<\/p>\n

At least four climbers including a woman mountaineer were found dead inside their tent at a high altitude camp on Mt Everest taking the death toll on the world\u2019s highest mountain in the spring climbing season to at least nine in Nepal side, the base camp officials have confirmed.<\/p>\n

Sherpa climbers from Seven Summit Treks who were there to recover the body of a Slovak mountaineer spotted four more dead bodies inside a tent, Managing Director at Seven Summit Treks Mingma Sherpa quoted the rescuers as saying over the phone from the incident site. Though the precise details of the incident are not available yet, the cause of death could be suffocation inside the tent, the rescuers reported.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources at the base camp also confirmed that four persons belonging to a new trekking company have gone out of contact since Sunday after they were last seen near the Balcony area. \u201cWe are trying to verify all shreds of evidence before naming the victims,\u201d a liaison officer at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were four deaths over this past weekend:<\/p>\n