‘Green Boots’ could finally be brought home to wife after 30 years frozen on Everest. ‘I will ask: where were you?’

Content warning: This article contains an image of a dead body

The remains of an Indian climber frozen on Mount Everest for 30 years could finally be brought home to his wife, who says she will ask: “Where were you all these years?”.

An expert rescue team from India is preparing to embark on a risky mission to recover what they believe are the remains of Dorje Morup, a 48-year-old who died in a blizzard during his team’s descent from the summit of the world’s tallest mountain in May 1996.

It was only this year that he was identified as ‘Green Boots’, owning to the distinctive lime-coloured Koflach footwear worn by the late climber whose body has been preserved in the ice at some 8,500 metres for the last three decades.

Morup’s wife, Konchak Yangskit told the BBC that in all this time she and the family had never given up hope that her husband would one day return home.

“When he comes home, I will ask him: ‘Where were you all these years?’,” she said.

Now aged around 75, she told the broadcaster it had been difficult to believe what had happened as she never had confirmation.

“Even though we organised cremation prayers at home, my heart refused to believe he had died,” she said. “I didn’t see his dead body, so it was difficult for me to believe it.”

Morup was part of a six-member expedition that was caught in a deadly storm near the summit in 1996 while trying to become the first Indian team to climb from the more challenging Chinese side.

It has long been believed that the remains of the climber known as Green Boots belonged to Tsewang Paljor, another climber killed on the expedition.

But testimony from survivors and the location of the last known radio contact with the climbers have led the authorities to believe that the body actually belongs to Morup.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police in June made a fresh appeal for a specialist high-altitude recovery agency to bring down the body from the Tibetan side of the mountain so they could confirm the hypothesis with DNA testing.

If the body is confirmed to belong to Morup, the remains will be given back to his family, the BBC reports. Morup’s son, Punchok Dorjai, said the family would want to hold a funeral for him in Ladakh’s capital, Leh.

Ms Yangskit told the broadcaster that the night before he left, her husband had promised to come back a hero and to make his country proud.

“He asked me to take care of the kids and come to the airport to greet him on his return,” she said.

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

At that altitude, temperatures can drop to -40C and air pressure is so low that the body struggles to take in oxygen.

On the Chinese side of the mountain, where the ‘Green Boots’ body is, there are fewer supports and steeper slopes, complicating efforts, Sherpa sources told BBC News Nepali.

The operation is expected to be further 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.

The Indo Tibetan Border Police wants the body to be returned by September, the BBC reports, and is now looking for mountain rescue Sherpa groups to volunteer their services.

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