In a case of pics and it still didn’t happen, Indian couple Dinesh and Tarkeshwari Rathod have been found to have faked their photographs of climbing Mount Everest.
The Indian couple first came under scrutiny in June after photographs of their ‘successful’ climb hit the press. In what appears to have been a running theme for the couple, they blatantly took photographs from mountaineering sites and cropped the shots to make it seem they had taken them on Everest.
Top: Image posted to Dinesh’s Facebook (now removed). Bottom: a picture website Mountain Guide
The pair, both police officers from Pune, India, claimed to have summited Everest on May 23, but other mountaineers challenged their story. Not only did it appear they had changed shoes and outfits for some pictures (something you can’t do when climbing at those altitudes and temperatures) the late season climb would have made the trek almost impossible.
Outfits and shoes have changed
Speaking to Buzzfeed, Anjali Kulkarni, a climber with 25 years of experience said the couple reached base camp on May 4. “The last team to arrive at base camp was the National Cadet Corps girls team (as far as I know) and they too arrived around April 20 or so. If a team arrived at base camp in the first week of May, there is not enough time to acclimatise and push for the summit,” she explained.
Those doubts were confirmed this week with the Nepalese authorities stating doctored images were submitted for a certificate of a successful climb. The Nepalese government has slapped the pair with 10 year bans from the country. Dawa Steven Sherpa, managing director of Asian Trekking, a company based in Kathmandu, Nepal said that Everest is the jewel in the grown for mountaineers. “I think the whole scene around Everest is being taken more seriously by the government now. The reputation of Nepal and Nepal’s tourism is at stake.”