A team of 14 mountaineers from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation left for Pindari Glacier in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district on Tuesday to retrieve the bodies of five climbers who died last month on a peak adjacent to the Nanda Devi peak, PTI reported.

The team comprises 12 climbers and two cooks, and will halt at Kharkov before proceeding towards the glacier, said Superintendent of Police Lokeshwar Singh. They may take two more days to reach Pindari point zero, before proceeding to Nanda Devi, he added.

Meanwhile, Pithoragarh District Magistrate VK Jogdande has allocated Rs 10 lakh for an expedition by an Indo-Tibetan Border Police team that will be conducted from Munsiyari sub-divisional headquarters. The team will leave from Munsiyari on Wednesday.

The five mountaineers who died were part of an eight-member team led by experienced mountaineer Martin Moran. It included John McLaren, Richard Payne and Rupert Havel – all from the United Kingdom – apart from Ruth Macrain from Australia, Anthony Sudecam and Rachel Bimmel from the United States, and liaison officer Chetan Pandey.

On June 5, Indian Air Force helicopters were unable to retrieve the bodies, which were sighted two days before. The helicopters returned to base after three attempts due to air turbulence, the height and geography of the terrain. Jogdande had then said that rescue operations would restart with a new plan.

The air search was conducted on the basis of clues provided by four British mountaineers rescued on June 2 from the base camp of Nanda Devi.