India to retrieve Everest 'Green Boots' climber after identifying body

India is preparing a mission to recover the remains of an Everest climber known for three decades as "Green Boots" after DNA testing confirmed he was an Indian soldier, documents seen by AFP show.

The frozen body has become one of the most recognisable landmarks on Everest, which straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet.

The body, named after the distinctive lime-coloured boots the climber was wearing, has lain in a cave at around 8,500 metres (27,887 feet) since May 1996, when a catastrophic blizzard killed eight climbers on the world's highest mountain.

The climber's identity was long thought to be Tsewang Paljor, from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), an Indian security force.

Instead, the ITBP said it had confirmed it was his comrade, Dorje Morup, one of Paljor's two companions from the same ill-fated climb.

The ITBP has floated a tender for bids for a "retrieval operation", saying it had confirmed it was Morup through a "prior verification process" it carried out in 2024.

Documents posted on an Indian government site detailed that expedition, which it said involved collecting DNA samples. This is the first time that authorities have formally declared the identity of the body.

The retrieval of corpses at high altitudes is a major mission requiring multiple climbers.

More than 300 people have died on the mountain since expeditions started in the 1920s, and many bodies remain.

Many are hidden by snow or swallowed down deep crevasses, but others are starting to emerge as climate change thins snow and ice.

Some, like "Green Boots", have been given names by the climbers who pass them on their bid to climb the peak.

The body of George Mallory, the British climber who went missing during a 1924 attempt on the summit, was only found in 1999.

His climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, has never been found — nor has their camera, which could provide evidence of a successful summit that would rewrite mountaineering history.