Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) confirmed Thursday its technical climbers had retrieved the body of the Chinese mountaineer who fell to his death while scaling Mt. Kenya on Sunday.
KWS Assistant Director of Mountain region Simon Gitau said the five-man rescue team of KWS professional climbers recovered the body despite strong winds posing stiff challenges to the recovery team.
Gitau said the technical managed to descend to where the body has been lying at 2:52 p.m. on Wednesday and moved his remains up to an open area to facilitate air lifting using a helicopter.
Gitau said in a statement that the family of the deceased travelled by road early Thursday from Nairobi to receive the body of their loved one.
"After consultation with the police, the family requested for cremation of the body at the earliest possible opportunity. The body has been moved to a Nanyuki hospital awaiting cremation Friday," he added.
The climber, a 33-year-old Chinese citizen born in Shanghai, died while descending Mt. Kenya's Batian Summit, which is 5,199 meters above sea level. His climbing partner was a Kenyan technical climbing guide.
The duo had already reached the summit, and was in the process of descending when the accident happened at 3 p.m. on Sunday near Shipton's Notch, a short climb from Batian.
