KATHMANDU, Nepal – The photos appeared to show them on top of the world, the summit of Mount Everest, and tourism officials in Nepal handed the two climbers coveted certificates stating that they had reached the highest peak in the world.
But veteran mountaineers said they saw a lie in the photographic details: an oxygen mask with no tube connecting it to an oxygen tank, no reflections from snow or mountains in a man’s sunglasses, and floppy flags in a place known for tearing winds. . The photos were fake, they said, and so was the climb.
Now, authorities in Nepal are trying to ban the two Indian mountaineers who submitted the photos from climbing Everest and other Nepalese peaks for 10 years after a government investigation concluded that they had edited the footage showing they had the summit reached then in fact they had not.
The climbers, Narender Singh Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami, claimed to have reached the top of the mountain in 2016, although local Sherpas and others questioned that at the time.
Still, tourist officials in Nepal handed them Everest certificates after the two climbers submitted photos that the Nepalese government says were fake.
Mr Yadav and Ms Goswami, who were not particularly well known for this controversy, are from a North Indian state, Haryana, which has rewarded successful climbers in the past.
“Their claim to the Everest summit could not be confirmed,” Pradip Kumar Koirala, a Nepalese tourism official, said Monday. Mr Koirala, who led the investigation into the duo, which began in August, added: “We have recommended that action be taken against them.”
Mr. Yadav said in an interview that he has all the necessary evidence to show that he has reached the top of the mountain. He has filed a complaint with the police against his guide in Nepal, who he said was misleading people by denying that he had climbed the summit. Ms. Goswami did not respond to inquiries from The New York Times.
Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia and the location of most Everest climbs, is struggling to stamp out fake mountaineers. But in recent years, the number of people faking Everest claims has skyrocketed, from a few decades ago to dozens a year.
Research is rare in Nepal, a country hungry for any bullish dollar it can get. It has increasingly issued Everest permits in recent years, sometimes causing climbers to push and shove each other and cause a dangerous human traffic jam on the roof of the world.
People in India often receive national awards for climbing the highest mountain in the world. If they already work for the government, they sometimes get promotions and lifetime benefits. Expedition operators say the flow of climbers from India has increased in recent years as the benefits have become better known.
But the prospect of that kind of recognition invalidated Mr. Yadav and Ms. Goswami’s claim.
In August, Mr. Yadav was selected as one of the recipients of the prestigious Indian Prize for Mountaineering. But Indian mountaineers and Sherpas who said they had seen Mr. Yadav descend to Everest Base Camp without reaching the top began posting comments online questioning the government’s intent.
The Indian government decided to withhold the grant pending an investigation. The Indian Ministry of Sports, which is presenting the award, said it was investigating claims that Mr Yadav had edited photos and sought clarification from Nepalese tourist officials.
The Nepalese government was forced to open an investigation. Experienced climbers and many mountaineers questioned Mr. Yadav’s climbing credentials and challenged details in his photos.
The inquiry commission questioned Mr. Yadav, Naba Kumar Phukon. In an interview, Mr. Phukon that he told the panel that Mr. Yadav and Mrs. Goswami never climbed Everest.
“I don’t know how he got a certificate without photos of the top,” said Mr. Phukon. The company that organized the duo’s trip said it “played no role at all in changing the photos.”
Nepal’s harshest punishment for bogus claims is to ban climbers from all mountains in the country. It doesn’t penalize them.
Such claims have become a recurring problem. In 2016, two Indian police officers, a husband and wife team, were fired after an investigation revealed they faked their Everest climb. The Indian couple said they had achieved a lifelong goal of reaching the summit, but Nepalese authorities later said the climbers had edited photos that appeared to show a successful climb.
In 2019, Nepal’s tourism ministry removed at least five names from the Everest summit list after questions arose about their climbs. The investigation into those allegations is still ongoing.
Climbers in India welcomed Nepal’s steps against Mr Yadav and Ms Goswami. “This will discourage fakers,” said Satyarup Siddhanta, an Indian mountaineer. “If the Nepalese government develops a web portal and posts all the summit photos that can help track down fakers.”
Nepalese authorities said their investigation showed that Mr. Yadav and Ms. Goswami had reached heights of more than 8,000 meters, about 2,000 meters from the summit. That altitude is known as the “death zone,” where the air is so thin that even with bottled oxygen, the brain and body begin to fail.
Their guide warned them that they had run out of oxygen and that they were not physically fit enough to reach the summit, and they were rescued, the investigation found. Lakpa Sherpa, a rescuer who was part of the operation, said that both Mr. Yadav and Ms. Goswami were running low on oxygen and their condition was rapidly deteriorating.
Bhadra Sharma reported from Kathmandu and Sameer Yasir from Srinagar, Kashmir.