Indian air force pilots spotted five bodies Monday in the Himalayas near the border with China and Nepal while searching for eight climbers attempting to chart a new route near India’s second-highest peak who went missing in an avalanche.
Dr. Vijay Kumar Jogdande, a civil administrator in the northern state of Uttarakhand, said the bodies, which he believes are those of some of the missing climbers, were identified using high-resolution photographs taken from a military helicopter before a rescue operation was suspended for the day because of heavy snowfall and high winds.
An operation to find the other three mountaineers will resume Tuesday, Jogdande said, cautioning that they may have been buried in an avalanche that struck the section of the mountain where they were climbing earlier this week.
