District Magistrate of Pithoragarh, Dr Vijay Kumar Jogdande, told SBS Hindi, “The search team will bring the bodies back to the district headquarters for the post-mortem. We will formally identify the bodies, but we are almost certain it was the same group that went missing last month.”
The group of climbers went missing on May 26 following an avalanche. The climbers were part of a 12-member expedition attempting to reach the summit of Nanda Devi East.
It included British team leader Martin Moran and three others from the UK, two American and an Australian. Sydney-based climber Ruth McCance and others are presumed dead after they lost contact and failed to return.
A search team of Indian paramilitary force Indo-Tibet Border Police located seven bodies on Sunday.
“One out of seven bodies is of a woman. She could be the Australian climber. We are waiting for identification,” Mr Jogdande said.
“We will continue searching the missing 8th mountaineer.”
District Information Officer Girija Joshi said, “We have informed the officials of these countries. We will hand over the bodies to them after the post-mortem."
A memorial service is planned next week for Sydney mountaineer Ruth McCance.
