Climbers Deny They Refused To Help

A Japanese team which scaled Mount Everest denied Monday that they refused to help Indian climbers who died on the slopes during last month’s blizzard.

Team leader Katsutoshi Ikebe called the allegations “groundless,” in a news conference in Fukuoka, 560 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Ikebe said his team had offered “as much help as possible” to the Indian mountaineers.

The Japanese team acknowledged finding several climbers near the summit. But they said they initially could not tell they were in trouble.

An adviser to the Indo-Tibetan border police has said that two of the three Indian mountaineers caught in the blizzard could have survived had the Japanese team stopped to help on its May 11 climb.

The Japanese team said the Indian mountaineers were sloppy, and insisted the Indians did not try to rescue their own climbers.

At least eight climbers died in a blizzard that struck the 29,028-foot mountain in May.