KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 16

The bodies of five Russian climbers who perished on Mt. Dhaulagiri on October 7 have been retrieved from 6,900 meters this morning.

According to Mingma Sherpa, Director at Heli Everest, long-line rescuers recovered the bodies of Alexander Dusheyko, Oleg Kruglov, Vladimir Chistikov, Mikhail Nosenko, and Dmitrii Shpilevoi and brought them to the base camp this morning.

Mingma, who is the first South Asian to successfully climb all 14 of the world's 8000ers without repeating a summit, coordinated the retrieval mission on Mt. Dhaulagiri while senior captain at Altitude Air Bibek Khadka conducted the search and evacuation flight at 7,000 meters.

'We have successfully retrieved five bodies as they were pulled by IFMGA guide Dawa Phinjo Bhote and Lakpa Bhote,' Mingma, who is now at base camp, said. The recovery mission also involved long-line rescue specialist Lokendra Dhami. 'Dhami supported the mission from the ground at the Dhaulagiri base camp,' Sherpa said.

The team stayed on the mountain since yesterday after several retrieval missions in the last week failed due to bad weather conditions. 'The bodies will be airlifted to Kathmandu shortly to hand them over to their respective families,' Sherpa