KATHMANDU: An unidentified human body discovered in the Khumbu Icefall on the Everest climbing route during this spring season has been transported to Kathmandu for post-mortem examination, with DNA testing now underway after physical identification proved inconclusive.

The Department of Tourism said it received information about the body — found along the route between Everest Base Camp and Camp II on April 28. Given the humanitarian and logistical complexity of managing unidentified remains in a high-altitude tourism zone, the department mobilised a coordinated response involving the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), the department's temporary base camp field office, and Icefall Doctor mountain guides. 

The body was recovered on the day of the report and airlifted to Lukla on May 1.

On May 2, pooling financial and logistical resources from the involved agencies, the body was flown by helicopter to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, where a post-mortem has been conducted. DNA analysis is in progress.

The department is now coordinating with expedition operators and trekking agencies to cross-reference records of climbing party members and mountain guides who went to Everest in previous seasons and were never accounted for.