India plans mission to recover ‘Green Boots’, the mountaineer whose body serves as Everest warning

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Indian authorities are looking to recover the body of a climber known as “Green Boots” from the upper slopes of Mount Everest nearly 30 years after a fatal expedition.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a paramilitary force, has issued a tender for a specialist high-altitude recovery agency to bring down what it believes is the body of Dorje Morup from the Tibet side of the mountain.

Many in the mountaineering community, however, believe “Green Boots” is another Indian climber, Tsewang Paljor.

Morup and Paljor were part of a six-member expedition that was caught in a deadly storm near the summit in 1996.

All six climbers were members of the Indian paramilitary force. While three turned back as weather conditions worsened, Morup, Paljor and Tsewang Samanla continued their ascent.

They reportedly went close to the summit before being forced to turn back. All three perished on the mountain.

The remains of “Green Boots” lie inside Everest’s “death zone” above 8,000m, where harsh conditions make recovery extremely dangerous.

The tender invites agencies with experience carrying out rescue or recovery operations at similar altitudes, preferably on Everest in the past five years.

The operation is expected to be complicated by the need to coordinate with Chinese authorities to transport the body across the Tibet-Nepal border, fly it to Kathmandu, and arrange repatriation to India, according to a report in The Tribune.

The operation is expected to take place between June and September.

“Green Boots” was so named after the bright green boots he was wearing when he died. His body is a well-known landmark on the northeast route of Everest.

In the years after the tragedy, it was reported that some Japanese climbers had encountered Morup alive but severely frostbitten and struggling to descend and helped him navigate fixed ropes. They had reportedly also discovered Samanla dead above the Second Step, a steep rocky outcrop at 8,610m on the Northeast Ridge between the First and Third Steps.

A Sherpa later claimed Tsewang Paljor was also seen alive but delirious.

On their descent, the Japanese team again passed Morup below the First Step and believed he would make it back to camp, but he died later that day.

Paljor’s remains were never recovered. It was suggested that he likely fell down the cliffs of the eastern Kangshung Face, fuelling the debate over whether the body known as “Green Boots” was actually Paljor or Morup.

Because recovering bodies from Everest’s extreme altitudes has proved highly dangerous, “Green Boots” has stayed on the mountain for decades.

He has become a stark reminder of the risks of high-altitude climbing and the challenges of rescue and recovery in the mountain’s “death zone”.

The recovery of the remains is considered extremely dangerous because helicopters can’t land at that altitude, meaning experienced Sherpas and climbers must manually move the body down steep terrain while facing risks such as avalanches, storms and oxygen deprivation.

Kamlesh Kamal, a spokesperson for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, declined to comment on the tender and told The Independent its written query would be forwarded to the force’s mountaineering division.