Authorities have come out to address a viral video that has been doing rounds on the internet with claims that it was Kenyan Mountaineer Cheruiyot Kirui’s body being retrieved from Mt Everest.
In the video, a helicopter is seen with a hanging rope tied on Kirui’s body being received at the base of the mountain with multiple social media users claiming that it was that of Kirui.
However, reports indicate that the video is real but the body was not that of Kiruiwho died last week. A reverse search conducted on the video reveals that the body recovery operation was shared on the Mountain.trekking Instagram page 3 weeks ago.
This means that by the time the video was shared, Kirui was still alive and the man in the video is not Kirui. However, at the moment, it still remains unclear whether Kirui’s body will be retrieved from the mountain.
According to statistics, more than three hundred bodies still lie dead on Mt Everest due to the difficult conditions most of which lie in inaccessible or dangerous locations, making it almost impossible to reach them without significant risk of other lives.
In addition to the difficult terrain to allow retrieving of bodies, the operation has been rated as expensive as it will need professionals and helicopters in order to safely retrieve the bodies to a safe altitude.
However, Kirui’s family speaking to the media revealed last conversation they had with Cheruiyot before he went to the daring adventure on the Mt Everest, something they said he had done over the years.
“It was his hobby, and he felt successful because he had climbed many mountains around the world. I heard he had come from Argentina and went to Mt. Everest. He had climbed nearly all of them, including Mt. Kilimanjaro. That was his work.”