For years, climbers on Mount Everest spoke of a landmark that was neither rock nor ice.
At around 8,500 metres, just below the summit on the northeast ridge, sits a small limestone cave. Inside lay the body of a climber, curled against the mountain and wearing bright green boots.
Generation after generation of climbers passed by it.
They called it “Green Boots”.
Over time, the name became part of Everest’s landscape and climbing folklore.
In the thin air of the death zone, where oxygen levels drop sharply and every step demands effort, Green Boots became a reference point. Climbers radioed back to base camp saying they had “crossed Green Boots”. Some paused near the cave to rest. Others looked away and kept climbing.
For nearly three decades, the man inside that cave was known only by a nickname.
Now, that has changed.
DNA testing has identified Green Boots as Lance Naik Dorje Morup, an Indian soldier with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), who died during Everest’s deadly 1996 storm.
India is now preparing to bring him home.
After decades of uncertainty, the mountain has finally given back his name.
The climb that changed everything
In May 1996, Morup was part of an ambitious ITBP expedition attempting something historic: the first Indian ascent of Everest from its northern face through Tibet.
It was one of the mountain’s most challenging routes.
That year would become one of the darkest in Everest’s history. A powerful storm claimed several lives and later became the subject of Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air.
On 10 May, as conditions deteriorated, members of the ITBP team faced a difficult decision.
Some turned back.
Morup, along with fellow climbers Tsewang Paljor and Tsewang Samanla, continued their summit push.
They never returned.
Caught in the storm, with temperatures plunging and strong winds battering the ridge, the three men were lost on the mountain.
Years later, only one of them would remain visible to the world.
A body, a landmark, a mystery
The climber in the cave was long believed to be Tsewang Paljor.
The assumption came from reports that Paljor had worn lime-green Koflach boots during the expedition.
Over time, that belief became accepted as fact.
But uncertainty remained.
As the years passed, Green Boots became less a person and more a symbol of Everest itself.
Today, more than 200 bodies are believed to remain on the mountain, many of them impossible to recover because of the risks, costs and extreme altitude involved. Above 8,000 metres, helicopters cannot operate safely, and even experienced Sherpas move with great caution.
Green Boots became one of the most visible reminders of that reality.
For climbers, the cave marked progress towards the summit.
For Morup’s family, and for India, the question of identity remained unanswered.
The DNA that changed the story
According to official records, DNA samples were collected from the body during an earlier high-altitude mission and later examined by the ITBP.
The findings changed a story that had remained unchallenged for nearly 30 years.
Green Boots was not Tsewang Paljor.
He was Lance Naik Dorje Morup.
The correction matters because it restores something that had been lost: identity.
For years, Morup’s body became a symbol and his boots became a landmark, while his name faded from public memory.
Now, that record is finally being corrected.
Bringing him home
India is now planning an attempt to bring a fallen climber back from Everest’s death zone.
A government tender has outlined the proposed operation.
A specialist team of experienced Sherpas will climb to the cave, recover Morup’s remains, and transport them to Delhi by October 2026.
It will be a difficult mission.
At that altitude, recovery work means cutting through ice, navigating unpredictable weather, and carrying weight in conditions where breathing itself becomes a challenge.
Sherpas experienced in high-altitude recoveries say such operations are among the most demanding tasks on Everest.
More than a mountain story
Everest is often remembered through records — the fastest ascent, the youngest climber, the highest rescue.
But the story of Green Boots speaks of something else: memory, loss, and unfinished journeys.
Dorje Morup was a soldier, a mountaineer, and part of an Indian expedition that pushed into one of the harshest environments on earth.
His story paused in 1996, inside a cave just a few hundred metres below the summit.
Nearly 30 years later, it is moving again.
This time, not towards the top of the mountain, but towards home.
