Green Boots Recovery: Why Dorje Morup Is Still on Everest (2026 Update)

• WhoLance Naik Dorje Morup, ITBP, aged 47
• Long thought to beTsewang Paljor
• Died10 to 11 May 1996, north side storm
• WhereLimestone alcove, about 8,500 m, north-east ridge
• Identified byDNA from samples taken in 2025
• Status, Oct 2026Not recovered. Target April to May 2027

India has started work on bringing home one of Mount Everest's most recognisable casualties. In June 2026 the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) floated a tender to hire a high-altitude recovery agency to retrieve "Green Boots," the body of a climber that has lain in a limestone alcove at around 8,500 m (about 27,700 ft) on Everest's north side since 1996. Green Boots is the unofficial name for that body, a grim landmark passed by north-side summit climbers for almost 30 years. The ITBP wanted the recovery done between June and September 2026, in line with religious and cultural protocols. That window closed with the body still on the mountain. An ITBP official told CNN in October 2026 that the mission is now expected in the April to May 2027 season. This is what the plan involves, who Green Boots was, and why bringing him down is so hard.

What India Announced in June 2026

The ITBP issued a formal tender in June 2026 to hire an experienced agency for the recovery, the clearest move yet on a body that has been discussed for years. The document called it a Phase II retrieval operation, set an earnest money deposit of Rs 12.78 lakh and asked for bids by 29 June, according to ETV Bharat. The brief is demanding: the winning bidder must field at least six highly experienced Sherpas skilled in technical retrieval above 8,000 m, secure permission from the Chinese authorities in Tibet who control the north side, arrange cross-border transport through Nepal, and complete the legal repatriation of the remains to India. The whole operation is to follow religious and cultural protocols, and the ITBP wanted it finished within the 2026 season, which it set as June to September. The tender names the climber as Lance Naik Dorje Morup. As the next section explains, DNA now backs that up.

Who Was Green Boots?

Green Boots was a member of a six-man Indo-Tibetan Border Police team attempting the first Indian ascent of Everest from the Tibetan north side in May 1996. On 10 May 1996, three of them, Subedar Tsewang Smanla, Head Constable Tsewang Paljor and Lance Naik Dorje Morup, pushed for the summit late in the day and were caught in the same ferocious blizzard that killed climbers on the Nepalese south side, the storm made famous by the 1996 Everest disaster. None of the three came down. The body that became "Green Boots," named for the climber's bright green mountaineering boots, came to rest in a small limestone cave at about 8,500 m on the north-east ridge. For years it was widely identified as Tsewang Paljor, who died at 28. In June 2026 the ITBP named Dorje Morup instead. He was 47.

The proof came from a quiet climb. In 2025, Dawa Steven Sherpa told CNN, his company Asian Trekking sent a small team of Sherpas up on bottled oxygen to cut hair and nail samples from the frozen body, working fast so nobody ran low. An Indian lab later matched the samples to Morup. The ITBP says it also went back through expedition records and spoke to surviving team members. Paljor is now believed to have fallen from the mountain, and his body has never been found. Deputy leader Harbhajan Singh says the three radioed base camp that evening to report they had summited, though climbers have long argued over whether they really got that far.

Timeline: Green Boots, 1996 to 2027

Thirty years separate the storm and the first serious recovery plan. These are the dated steps, with the status of each.

How High the Body Lies

Bars start at 5,000 m. The cave sits roughly 350 m below the summit, deep in the death zone, and only about 200 m above the camp the 1996 team climbed from.

Why the Body Stayed for 30 Years

The body sits in the "death zone" above 8,000 m, where there is barely a third of the oxygen available at sea level and the human body steadily deteriorates. A body frozen solid for decades is far heavier and stiffer than a living climber, and moving it across exposed, technical ground is slow and extremely hazardous. The cold also preserves remains for decades, which is why Green Boots stayed visible and intact for so long. Around 2014 a Chinese expedition is reported to have moved the remains to a less visible spot beside the route, and the body was seen less often afterwards. For most of three decades, the practical answer to "why not recover it" was simply that the risk and cost to living climbers were judged too high.

Why Recovering It Is So Difficult

A recovery above 8,000 m is among the hardest operations in mountaineering, which is why the ITBP tender reads the way it does. The team needs at least six elite Sherpas working in a zone where every task takes far longer and rescue of the rescuers is almost impossible. The north side is controlled by China, so the operation needs Tibetan-side permission, while the logistics and repatriation route run through Nepal, adding a cross-border layer. The work can only happen in a narrow weather window, and even then a sudden storm, like the one that killed the team in 1996, can shut the mountain down. Bringing a body of that weight down technical terrain, then across an international border and through legal repatriation, takes a full expedition with its own budget.

Dawa Steven Sherpa told CNN a team of about eight Sherpas could do it. They would pad the body with foam, strap it into a stretcher that wraps around it and drag it so it slides over rock and ice, with extra hands to stop it sliding away. Limbs frozen at an angle can snap if they catch on a rock. Money is the other wall. Mountaineering officials told the Kathmandu Post in 2023 that recoveries from high on Everest cost between USD 20,000 and 200,000. Then there's politics. China issued no Everest permits to foreign climbers on the Tibet side in 2026, so there was no legal route to the body this year, and ties between India and China are still strained after the 2020 border clashes.

The Bigger Picture on Everest

Green Boots is one of more than 200 bodies thought to remain on Everest, most of them above the death zone where recovery has long been impractical. That is starting to change. Nepal's army has run high-altitude clean-ups on the south side since 2019, bringing down tonnes of rubbish and several bodies. India's move on Green Boots fits this shift toward recovering the mountain's dead and treating them with dignity. Asked why now, an ITBP official told CNN that someone who died on duty at altitude should be given that dignity. For the wider story, see our guides to the Green Boots of Mount Everest, the bodies that remain on Everest, and the 1996 Everest disaster.

What Happens Next

The 2026 window passed without a recovery, and no contract award has been made public. The ITBP now points to April and May 2027, once approvals and clearances are in place. CNN reported that it is unclear whether any company will bid for next year, and the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which issues north-side permits, did not answer its calls. If the mission goes ahead, it would be one of the highest body recoveries ever attempted on Everest. Morup's wife, Konchak Yangskit, still lives in Ladakh. She told The Tab in August 2026 that she wants to ask him where he has been all these years. We will update this story as the mission progresses. If Everest's history draws you to the mountain itself, our Everest Base Camp Trek walks the Nepalese approach to the foot of the world's highest peak.

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