Uttarakhand SDRF rescues 4 foreign tourists from Neelkanth trek in Chamoli

The Uttarakhand state disaster response force (SDRF) rescued four foreign tourists who were stranded on the Neelkanth trek in Chamoli district, an official said.
SDRF Commandant Arpan Yaduvanshi said, “On October 8 late evening, we received information from Badrinath police station that some foreign tourists have been stranded on the Neelkanth trek. Upon receiving the information, our Badrinath post team led by head constable Rahul Thapa rushed to the spot with the required rescue equipment. We, along with the local police, carried out an extensive search operation in extremely difficult conditions on the trek to search for the trekkers. We successfully found four foreign tourists on the Neelkanth trek and brought them to Badrinath.”
The tourists were identified as Joseph (56), a resident of Spain, and Paulo, Rodrigo, and Danilo, residents of Brazil.
It came days after two foreign mountaineers, who were stranded at an altitude of over 6,015 metres for three days during an expedition to Chaukhamba-3 peak after their expedition equipment and bags carrying food slipped into a gorge, were successfully rescued on Sunday.
The two mountaineers — Michelle Theresa Dvorak (23) from the United States and Fay Jane Manners (27) from the United Kingdom — had left Delhi last month for Chaukhamba-3 expedition, located at an altitude of 6,996 metres. The two were part of a foreign mountaineering expedition by the India Mountaineering Foundation.
Many mountaineers and trekkers have lost their lives in the state after they went missing or were caught in extreme weather events during mountaineering and trekking. In June this year, nine members of a 22-member trekking team were killed after they were caught in a blizzard on the Sahastra Tal trek in Uttarkashi district. On October 5, 2023, the body of a missing mountaineer was recovered after one year from snow avalanche incident site at Dokrani Bamak glacier in Uttarkashi district by a team of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM).
In October 2022, a team of 41 people – 34 trainees and 7 trainers – were hit by an avalanche near the Dokrani Bamak glacier while returning from high-altitude navigation from the Mount Draupadi ka Danda 2 peak (5,670 metres). Twenty-seven people had died in the incident.
In May 2022, Indian Air Force choppers rescued seven trekkers stranded on the Pandav Shera trek area in Rudraprayag district at a height of 4,500 metres. In October 2022, one trekker died on Rudranath trekking route located at an altitude of over 3,300 metres in Chamoli district. In June 2021, SDRF rescued two trekkers, including one foreigner from Slovenia (a country in Central Europe), from Hemkund Ghangaria trek route in Chamoli district.
In June 2019, eight mountaineers heading for the summit near Nanda Devi East in Pithoragarh were killed after they were hit by an avalanche.