Bengal Everester goes missing on way down

KOLKATA: A 45-year-old mountaineer from Bengal went missing on way down after summiting Mount Everest even as two others from the state scaled the world’s highest peak and made it back to their camp late Thursday.

Subrata Ghosh probably disappeared in what is referred to by climbers as the “death zone”, near the summit, while descending to Camp IV, the final stop on way to the 8,849-metre peak. A search and recovery operation is likely to start by Sunday but seasoned climbers that TOI spoke to were not very hopeful of his survival.

“We are yet to get details of what happened to Ghosh. The sherpa who was with him suddenly realised he was not there. The sherpa’s condition was also very bad. He is still hallucinating,” said Bodhraj Bhandari, managing director of Kathmandu-based Snowy Horizon Treks, which organised the expedition.