India is seeking a specialist recovery team to retrieve the body believed to be Dorje Morup, an Indian climber who died descending Mount Everest in 1996 and became known as “Green Boots” because of his distinctive lime-coloured footwear. His frozen remains, near the summit on Everest’s Chinese side, have long served as a grim landmark for climbers; recovering them would offer his family a long-delayed chance to bring him home.

Morup, a 48-year-old Indo-Tibetan Border Police lance corporal from Ladakh, was one of three members of an Indian expedition who reached Everest’s 8,849m summit before a blizzard killed them on the descent. More than 300 people have died in the Everest region over the past century, and many bodies remain there because recovery at extreme altitude is dangerous and technically difficult. Although “Green Boots” was previously thought to be fellow climber Tsewang Paljor, survivor accounts and the location of the expedition’s last radio contact have led authorities to believe the body is Morup’s.