For the family members of the five army mountaineers, who have been missing from the Nanda Devi massif, the past one week has been full of mental pain and agony.

On September 26, the five bravehearts lost contact after they were caught in a blizzard while climbing the Nada Devi (East) peak, a mountain considered to be toughest even by Sir Edmund Hillary.

Despite frantic efforts launched by the army to search for the mountaineers, the hopes of finding them in the dizzying heights of the Nanda Devi East appeared bleak.

A piece of rope was the only belonging which has been found by the search teams so far. The rope was being used during the mountaineers attempts to escape a snowstorm while rushing from one camp to another.

The army has so far used helicopters and the highly trained personnel of the High Altitude War School (HAWS) in the search operation. Dog squads are also being used in the operation.

The five-member team led by Everester Maj Shyamal Sinha (Vir Chakra), belonging to  the Ranikhet-based Kumaon Regiment Centre, had informed the base camp that they were leaving their high-altitude camp number 2 towards camp number  1 in the downward direction.

Since then, there has been no contact. The mountaineers embarked on August 31 for scaling Nanda Devi East, the highest of the Garhwal peaks which is considered to be the toughest for climbing.

Subedar Lal Singh, who had also climbed the Mount Everest earlier, was also part of the expedition. Singh is also recipient of the Vir Chakra during the Kargil conflict.

Sir Hillary while narrating his experiences when he climbed the Nanda Devi East had said that he found the summit of this peak tougher than that of the Mount Everest. Scores of mountaineers have perished while climbing the Nanda Devi (East).