Search for second missing Polish climber called off

DEHRADUN: Search operations for locating the missing Polish climber at Shivling peak was called off for the time being on Saturday evening, officials said. Meanwhile, the rest of the team of Polish climbers have taken the body of Lukasz Jan Chrzanowski, the second climber, to Delhi on Sunday evening and will be returning to their country after a short halt.
On Saturday evening, the post-mortem on Chrzanowski’s body was conducted at the district hospital. Then the group members reached Jolly Grant airport on Sunday evening and boarded a flight to Delhi at 6 pm. The body has been taken to Delhi by the Polish group on their own.
Meanwhile, the search operation to find the second mountaineer, Grezegorg Michael, has been stopped since there was no instruction and clearance for that. Director of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) Col Ajay Kothiyal said, “The search operation was called off on Saturday evening after Chrzanowski’s body was handed over to the group.”
On the decision to abandon the search operation for the second Polish mountaineer, Col Kothiyal said, “The body was located at an altitude of more than 6,000 metre and it would take an expedition for which decision and clearance has to come from the competent authority.”
On September 22, the entire team of eight Polish mountaineers had left Gangotri and reached the base camp at Tapovan on September 24. Michael was the leader of the team and along with Chrzanowski had taken a difficult route to climb Shivling peak. Three members of the team had returned due to inclement weather but the duo went on climbing. On October 10, the state government was alerted about the missing mountaineers and then a joint team was formed to rescue them.
NIM officials who were part of the rescue team see little possibility of launching another expedition to bring back the second body. “There are many peaks like Mount Everest where scores of bodies of mountaineers are present even today and no efforts are made to bring them back,” said an NIM official.