Frozen bodies spotted by Himalayan guide may be trekkers who vanished in 1982

An Indian search party has set off to find the body of a Swedish woman thought to have died trekking in the Himalayas - 22 years after she disappeared.

An Indian search party has set off to find the body of a Swedish woman thought to have died trekking in the Himalayas - 22 years after she disappeared.

Margot Lydia Aulikki Ryyannen and her American fiancé, Sew Milstein, disappeared in 1982. They were trekking in India's western Himalayas, a region that draws visitors from around the world for its natural beauty, but one that is also known for the danger of its peaks.

Nothing was seen of the couple again. In 1991, all hope of recovering them was given up and they were declared "presumed dead".

And then, last month, a mountain guide said that he had spotted four frozen bodies preserved on the icy heights of Kangla Jot mountain, close to the Kangla pass in Himacahal Pradesh state. Three were men and one was a woman.

From a trekking permit recovered from the woman's body, the authorities are guessing two of them may be Ryyannen and Milstein. Nobody knows who the other two are.

The guide was unable to bring the bodies down, so now the local authorities are sending a helicopter up to find them. This will confirm if a ground party should be sent up. But mountaineers warn that any expedition to recover the bodies will be tough, with the trekking season over and weather closing in. It is at least a week-long trek to where the bodies were seen.