Four bodies discovered on Everest 'are from last year'

Nepali officials on Thursday said four bodies discovered on Everest were not new fatalities, correcting earlier statements.A team of Sherpas who were retrieving the body of a Slovak climber who died over the weekend incorrectly reported that they saw four bodies at Camp 4 at 7,950 metres, the highest camp on Everest, tour operator Mingma Sherpa said."The bodies of climbers from last season were discovered this season. Some Sherpas thought they died this week," he told DPA.Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at Nepal's Department of Tourism, said after checking with all expedition organisers, the four couldn't be accounted for."I asked guides at the base camp and tour operators in Kathmandu. None of their climbers were missing. So we concluded that the bodies were from last year," he said.Nepal issued permits to 375 climbers for the spring climbing season, a record number since commercial expedition began after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited the 8,848-metre peak for the first time in 1953.Six climbers have died on Everest this season so far. Four climbers died over the weekend when dozens reached the top of the world's highest peak. A Swiss man and an 85-year-old Nepali climber died earlier in the season.