Five South Korean climbers and their four Nepalese guides were found dead on Saturday... after a snowstorm in the Himalayas.<br />Their bodies have now been retrieved.<br />Our Oh Soo-young has the latest. <br /> Rescue authorities have retrieved the bodies of the five South Korean climbers and four Nepalese guides... who were found dead in the Himalayas after a violent snowstorm last week.<br />The South Korean embassy in Nepal said Sunday that all nine bodies were transported to a nearby village... after a mission that began early in the morning.<br /> The mountaineers were found dead Saturday near their base camp at an altitude of 35-hundred meters on Mount Gurja in western Nepal.<br /> The team included fourty-nine year-old Kim Chang-ho who was the first South Korean to climb all 14 peaks of 8-thousand meters on the Himalayan range -- without supplemental oxygen.<br />Kim's group was attempting to scale the rarely-climbed 7-thousand meter Gurja Himal when the snowstorms struck Friday.<br /> The bad weather had thwarted a rescue,... preventing helicopters from landing,... plus the site of the disaster is extremely remote,... estimated to take at least three days to reach from the capital of Kathmandu. <br />It's said to be the worst climbing accident in the South Asian country in two years.<br />Seoul's foreign ministry on Sunday said it would send a support team to the site to help with the retrieval operation and the funeral arrangements, and to guide the victims' families on their unfortunate trip to Nepal.<br />Oh Soo-young, Arirang News. <br />
