KATHMANDU: A team of Sherpa climbers retrieved the body of an Austrian mountaineer, who was last seen on December 19, near the summit of Mt Lobuche East (6,119 m) in the Mt Everest region, according to a government official. Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil aviation said that Sherpa climbers from Nima Adventure Trek and Expedition brought the body of Markus Schett (41) to Kathmandu from Mt Lobuche East On Tuesday. “His body is being kept at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital for postmortem,” he said. Kanchha Sherpa, Managing Director at the Nima Adventure said that he along with Kipa Sherpa, Gyalzen Sherpa, Pema Sherpa and Phur Gyalzen Sherpa retrieved the body of the Austrian alpinist from the height of 6,050 m. “We spotted the body when we were on the way to summit.” Markus’s body was also seen above the Lobuche East High Camp on December 29 by other climbers when the alpinist was last seen by his guide Pushkar Thakuri on December 19. Markus reportedly tried to climb the peak alone leaving his guide at the high camp and never returned. The Austrian alpinist was a part of an expedition locally managed by Ramdung Expedition Pvt Ltd. Earlier, Markus’s sister and other relatives had also visited Kathmandu to expedite a search operation in the last week of December. Sherpa, who has over 18 years of mountaineering and rescue experiences, said that Markus family immediately contacted him for retrieval of the body after he posted a photo on social media. “It was quite difficult to descend the mountain with the dead body but we’ve successfully done it,” Sherpa said. Markus’s sister and Austrian Consul General have also arrived here to receive the body, he said. “There will be a huge challenge to keep the mountains clean if such negligence from all sector remains,” Sherpa bemoaned. “For the sake of humanity, you and your team’s effort in sharing broadly mourning information as well as managing evacuation of the body certainly show your level of professionalism in the world of mountain guide,” Riady Bakri commented on Facebook. Nuru Jangbu Sherpa, executive member at the Nepal Mountaineering Association, criticised the country’s only alpine club for its negligence in handling the critical issues about mountaineering sector. “Why has NMA failed to take any initiative to bring back Markus’s body,” he questioned, adding that NMA collected millions of rupees as royalty ranging from garbage deposit to climbing permit fee. He also raised questions over the effectiveness of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee and the credibility of expedition handling agency.