Richard Khear's friend Sheriar had climbed down and located him soon after the mishap and came back to report to the authorities for help. There is glaring discrepacy that several rescue teams deployed one after other for a week could not trace him nor could dare climb down the steep and hard rocks to the bottom of the gorge.

The body of Richard Khear was finally located in an aerial survey by the specially requisitioned army team's chopper on Saturday and the rescue operation was conducted by a 12-member team on Sunday. The body was brought up the steep cliff. The body would be handed over to his relatives, who are camping nearby, after autopsy on Monday.

"The army's rescue team comprising two officers, two junior commissioned officers and eight jawans from the High Altitude Warfare School in Sonmarg and the Yol-based Rising Star Corps was launched in army aviation helicopters," the army's western command said in a press release.

Richard Khear was with his NRI friend Sheriar scaling the 17,000-ft high Mount Castle Peak, also reported as Kistal Peak, near Tawa Glacier. It is said Sheriar climbed down, reached him, provided the wherewithals to keep himself alive and climbed up to seek help to rescue him.

However, it was reported that rescue teams could not trace Richard Khear even after a week's search on the excuse that the gorge was difficult to climb down from the steep cliff. Search operations were carried out by several agencies. First an army team was sent for search but they couldn't land the chopper. Some mountaineering experts were since camping at the spot but the rock they found too hard and the cliff too steep to climb down. One more search team was sent on Wednesday last. An Air Force chopper too had scanned the gorge but the trekker could not be located.

"I request you to kindly arrange for an army or air force rescue team immediately to save my son. It has been four days since he has been battling for life in the valley with not a single soul to help him. We do not even know if he has survived this or not, we are only hoping he has. Please look into this matter immediately as there has been tremendous delay already. Every passing minute is reducing the chances of his survival," trekker Richard Khear's mother Judith Khear had said in a letter sent to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh last week.

Richard Khear was working for a private company in Mumbai. Fond of trekking and mountaineering, he had udergone training at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering at Manali a few years ago.

Miyar is a very remote and inaccessible valley in the western side of the district of Lahaul and Spiti, in Himachal Pradesh State. Miyar Valley is about 80 km long from Udaipur to the Kang La Pass.

Trekker Richard Khear's funeral on Wednesday

Mumbai trekker Richard Khear falls into gorge in Lahaul-Spiti, missing