AKIPRESS.COM - Rescuers have finally recovered the bodies of nine mountaineers – including a world-famous climber from South Korea - who were killed as they planned the ascent of a peak in Nepal, Independent reports.

The effort to find the nine was hampered by difficult and remote terrain, and it took two days before the bodies were found.

The group, who were killed by a storm sweeping through their camp at the base of Gurja Himal, included five South Koreans and their four Nepalese guides.

One of the Koreans was Kim Chang-ho, the first South Korean to summit all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000m without using oxygen, who was leading the expedition to map a new route to the peak that has not been scaled in eight years.

Nepal offers hundreds of mountains to climb, and mountaineers generally choose those where routes and conditions are well known.

Only 30 climbers have ever reached the peak of the 7,193m (23,590ft) Gurja Himal, government tourism director Surendra Thapa said, and Kim was not among them.

Many climbers are discouraged from the mountain because of a legal requirement to have at least three trained Nepalese guides accompany them in order to qualify for a permit.