Mount Everest as a name itself conjures up images of a majestic beauty towering above the Panoramic Himalayas. Seen from afar, the mountain will no doubt leave you in awe of its ethereal and intimidating presence not forgetting its pristine glory blanketed in white. But!!! When you are on the mountain itself as many images will show you, it could be an eerie and haunting open graveyard as Everest is also a resting place for more than 200 hundred dead, victims of avalanches, accidents, and hypothermia. Some even dying agonizing deaths imploring and pleading for help from heartless climber’s hell-bent on getting to the top at the cost of their own humanity.
This is the real but chilling reality of Everest a mountain that can be regarded as both beauty and beast because above 26,000 feet lies the famous death zone of Everest. What is, even more, spine chilling is the fact that all of these dead bodies lie in plain sight frozen in various positions for all to see. Here are 10 shocking stories of dead bodies on Everest.
One of Everest’s most famous landmarks seen on the North Col route is “Green Boots” named after the green mountain boots worn by the corpse whose identity is still a debate. Many feel it is an Indian climber named Tsewang Paljor who was part of an Indian summit attempt in 1996 that perished except for one survivor Harbhajan Singh. Paljor and his team members were caught in a blizzard and succumbed to the elements just after descending from a successful summit attempt. His body was brought down to a lower level where no snow or debris covers them. It lies visible and identified easily by the green boots.
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Sleeping beauty is the name of the body of American climber Francys Arsentiev who tried climbing the mountain along with husband Sergei without supplemental oxygen in 1998. Francys was separated even as Sergei reached camp IV. He was found half alive by an Uzbek team who brought her to a lower but left her there due to lack of their own resources.
On May 24th she was found by Climbers Ian Goodall and Cathy O Dowd who abandoned their summit plans to help her but she kept fainting. They were compelled to leave her due to their own oxygen running out. For years he body lay in the open and was named sleeping beauty till Goodall returned to Everest in 2007 and brought her body to a lower position to rest in peace rather than be a signpost for others.
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The Death of climber David Sharp shocked people worldwide and brought into the question the inhumanity of climbers on the mountain. Sharp a British climber successfully ascended the summit after two failed attempts without oxygen. During his descent, he rested in the small cave where green boots lay but instead slipped into unconsciousness.
Inspite of seeing him alive and pleading for help, several climbers including Mark Inglis ignored him in their quest to the summit leaving him to die. So much for the unwritten code that climbers should abandon their quest to help others in need or dying.
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The body of the pioneer of mountaineering on Everest, George Mallory was found in 1999 after 75 years mummified and lying head down on the north side of the mountain. In 1924, Malory was on an expedition to Everest with climbing partner Sandy Irvine. They disappeared while ascending the summit and their bodies were never found. It was widely believed from the injury marks on his body that an accident had caused one of the men to fall dragging the other with him. Mallory was believed to have died from a sharp blow to the head caused by crashing into rock jutting out on the mountain. Irvine’s body was never found.
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Hannelore Schmatz and partner Ray Genet made a successful ascent of the summit in October 1979 but while their descent, suffering from exhaustion decided to spend the night in the death zone in spite of their Sherpa’s warnings. Lacking necessary protection, they were caught in a snowstorm where Genett died of hypothermia. Schmats was unlucky enough to stop just 330 feet from camp suffering fever and exhaustion. Her last words were “water…water…. For years Hannelore lay in that position on Camp IV resting on her backpack grimfully staring out at the mountain before her. Strong winds eventually dragged her body down to the Kangsung face where she remains known simply as “the German Woman”.
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Among bodies on Everest and as weird as it sounds, there is nothing bright and happy about “The Rainbow Valley” which is an area on the Northeast ridge of the mountain near the summit. The Rainbow Valley is a pit of several dead bodies all looking very colorful because of the different colors of mountain jackets still attached to the bodies of the dead climbers.
There are corpses strewn across the mountain in this area where climbers usually push dead bodies on routes into the area as they could pose obstacles to others. Although Nepal Law states that bodies should be removed immediately to keep the sacred sanctity of the mountain, it is virtually impossible to do so.
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This is one intriguing death on Everest. Mountaineer Maurice Wilson a British fighter pilot and deeply religious person thought that the Christian Lord’s prayer was enough to get him to the top. His plans however to fly a plane as close to the summit and then hike from there were dashed by the authorities not granting him permission.
He then decided to start his quest from the Rombuk glacier now in Tibet. With lack of climbing experience and how to use equipment, he failed miserably and was lost several times. In what was to be his last attempt, he again ran into problems of bad weather where he was unable to navigate the mountain due to inexperience and lack of equipment. His body was found in 1935 amidst his tattered tent. His diary that was also found served as the proof of his many experiences.
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Frenchman Marco Siffredi became the first man to successfully snowboard down Mount Everest in 2001. However that wasn’t satisfactory because he was unable to snowboard down what he considered the true face of Everest, the Hornbein Coulier. Siffredi tried a second time in 2002 when the Coulier had amassed maximum amount of snow. Although he spent 12 grueling hours with the help of a Sherpa, he was soon tired with exhaustion. Inspite of his Sherpa’s warnings, he continued in a desperate bid to conquer what was he Holy Grail of snowboarding, but unfortunately he never made it alive.
But the weird twist in this tale is the haunting fact that when Sherpas were busy packing up at Camp III they noticed a solitary figure rise on the mountain and slide down the North Col. There was no reports of climbers atop the mountain at the time of year. The Sherpas then decided to investigate the area but when they climbed up, they could see no snowboarding tracks in the snow. Marco Siffredi may be still snowboarding down Everest to this day in his own perception of heaven.
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The spring of 1996 was one of the worst times in Everest plagued by blizzards, avalanches and snowstorms. The monstrous blizzard of 1996 killed several climbers in what was to be one of the worst disasters on Everest in recent times. Yasuko Namba was one such victim who was about to complete her feat of climbing all famous seven summits or the grand slam of mountaineering.
At 47, she became the oldest woman to summit Everest but just as she was making her descent, the blizzard struck trapping Namba and several climbers on South Col. Suffering hypothermia, she was mistaken for dead along with partner Beck Weathers as climbers attempted a rescue mission to bring the party down to a lower camp. The next day when a search party found them in deplorable conditions, they were abandoned again, twice in 14 hours. Weathers ultimately made to to base camp, while Namba died on the mountain alone.
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Peter Kinloch had just conquered Everest as his fifth of the seven peak attempt when he suffered snow blindness during descent. Although his guides and Sherpas tried desperately to help him down the mountain over a span of ten hours, they were son deprived of oxygen and began to suffer hypothermia themselves. They were forced to leave him after which he succumbed to death.
A few months later when Rodney Hogg, Kinloch's friend was attempting a summit on Everest, he actually bumped into a corpse who turned out to be Peter lying on a ledge in a perfect state of preservation.
“When I saw him, I instantly knew it was Peter. You could see his face. It was just like he was lying on his back taking a rest,” Hogg said.
Hogg spent a few moments paying his last respects after which he continued his attempt. It seemed that before the sherpas had abandoned him, they had secured his body to a fixed line tethered to the ledge where he will most probably remain to this day. Among dead bodies on Everest, this is truly a grim and haunting image.
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