In what the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) described as the world’s toughest rescue mission of its kind, the bodies of seven foreign tourists, including an Indian guide, were retrieved from a height of 21,000 feet by the force. Braving an inhospitable weather, with dearth of oxygen in the air, and a steep slope, 11 members of the ITBP successfully got down the bodies of the tourists who were swept away by an avalanche on the Nanda Devi peak in Uttarakhand.

ITBP mountaineers in action at Nanda Devi peak

The foreign mountaineering team included British nationals Martin Moran, John McLaren, Rupert Whewell and University of York lecturer Richard Payne; US nationals Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel, Australian Ruth McCance and Indian guide Chetan Pandey. The eighth climber, British team leader Martin Moran, is still missing, the ITBP claimed.

The mountaineers had last communicated on 26 May 2019. The team initially comprised 12 climbers at the start of the expedition. Four British climbers were rescued after they broke away from the group at the start. The bodies of the climbers were spotted by a military helicopter on June 3, post which several attempts to extract the bodies proved unsuccessful because of the tough terrain and rough weather.

That’s when the ITBP was assigned the task to get the bodies down using its team of experienced and highly motivated mountaineers. The force considered it a mission for itself. Eleven volunteers were chosen to undertake the rescue mission. It was decided to send one team on foot to the accident site, take out the bodies and get it up to 15,000 feet, where an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter could take them down.


The ITBP rehearsed with the IAF for the mission named ‘Operation Daredevil’. There was no helipad at the accident site, so the helicopter had to be in the air at about half a foot from the ground. The team was trained for the exercise. After the operation was launched on June 14, the Pithoragarh district administration requested the IAF to send a small helicopter, Cheetah. Thereafter, the ITBP visited that area and surveyed the entire area.