As daunting and treacherous it is, Mount Everest remains like a banshee in the ocean beckoning and challenging climbers to test themselves against the might of the world’s highest mountain. The dangers, risks, and pitfalls of challenging Everest are well known by every mountaineer, but in that lies the excitement and sense of adventure in tackling the mountain that has killed many who still remain frozen mummies in the snow. The bodies lying on Everest are grim landmarks enroute to the top. Yet to submit its peak is perhaps akin to stepping foot on the moon.
But what is even more mysterious about Everest is the ghost sightings revealed by mountaineers themselves who swear that they have seen strange things on Everest. With several lives having died in the most tragic circumstances no wonder, Everest is plagued with ghosts and spirits because up there you don’t just die instantly, you are left to die” and this is one subject that mountaineers are debating today, that the code of the mountain (to abandon ones quest to help others in distress) is a joke where a summit is more important than a life.
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As pristine and magical Everest may appear when seen from afar, it has a gothic nature of being pure and white but surrounded by death. Mountaineers have all passed by the corpse that lies above Everest called Green boots because of the green color boots worn by the corpse who was once Tsweang Paljor a Sherpa mountaineer. His body serves as a landmark on the main northeast ridge lying in eerie state unburied and a grim landmark for the living who pass by enroute to the summit. What’s highly deplorable is that mountaineers also take selfies next to the corpse, David Sharp a famous mountaineer died from hypothermia just next to green boots.
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Mount Everest is a graveyard of bodies where climbers will see unidentified bodies cropping up everywhere. Not everyone survives the harsh conditions and even while descending if you get caught in a snowstorm or blizzard, then there’s a risk of being stranded and dying from hypothermia. Sadly a summit doesn’t even count if you die in descent. In 2017, four bodies were discovered in a base camp tent but surprisingly no mountaineering agency reported missing climbers.
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Frank Smythe was a famous botanist and mountaineer who was credited with the discovery of the valley of flowers. In his memoirs, he wrote that in 1913, when he was descending from a death zone on Everest, he met a man whom he shared a mint cake with him but suddenly saw two ghostly figures one which had wings while another had a beak-like mouth. Both figures hovered above him and then eventually disappeared in the mist. In such a stressful condition, Smythe could have also been suffering from hallucinations which aren’t entirely uncommon.
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Dougal Haston and Doug Scott, two famous climbers reported that in 1975, they saw a third climber assisting their survival during a particular hazardous night. Haston and Scott were members of the first expedition that successfully climbed Mount Everest from an uncharted route. Their unconventional methods included finger holds, smears and edges. The ghost climber provided them company and even helped them make it through the dangerous night.
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Pemba Dorje was a Sherpa from Nepal who claimed he had seen “black shadows” when he climbed Mount Everest in 2004. He said, “When I paused at a mount of rocks I saw some spirits in the form of black shadows coming towards me, stretching their hands and begging for something to eat.”
Dorje felt they were spirits of dead mountaineers who had died on the mountain. This may not seem farfetched as the bodies of dead mountaineers are left in the snow as a mark of respect.
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Photographic Evidence of Yetis or the abominable snowman was provided by Mountaineer Eric Shipton who found footprints in the snow on Mount Everest. He reported that he had found it on one of the glaciers of the Menlung basin at 19000 feet. He and his team followed the footprints for a mile but then stopped. The footprints they said was fresh and not more than a day old. They were beyond doubt that the footprints belonged to yetis or wild men.
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Among the mysteries of Mount Everest, Mohan Singh lived in Benni a Himalayan village. One day when he was chopping wood, He reported a terrifying experience seeing a strange man who reached for his shirt but whose fingers went straight through Singh’ body. He said that the stranger’s body seems to reduce in size and suddenly grew to nine feet tall. Although Singh escaped, he contracted a high fever which he felt was because of the contact with the spirit.
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Baba Harbhajan Singh was hailed as a hero of Nathula which is a border area between India and China in the northeast state of Sikkim. He died in 1968 after slipping into a stream. The story goes that his body was found by fellow soldiers led by his own ghost. It is believed that Singh's spirit entered their dreams and informed them where his body lay. The search party also reported seeing Singh on horseback guiding them to the spot. Many believe that Singh’s spirit patrols the area guarding India’s borders at night.
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If the mysteries of Mount Everest seemed too farfetched for you, then what’s even more tragic about Everest is the manner in which climbers are left to deal because of a stupid code of the mountain climbers abide by in their quest for the summit.
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Perhaps the worst incident was of Francis Arsentiev and her Husband Sergei who tried summiting Everest in 1998. Francis attempted to become the first woman to climb the mountain without oxygen. Although she succeeded after two attempts, she never lived to celebrate her feat.
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Lack of O2 forced the couple to descend slowly and as a result, they had to spend a night in the death zone. Bad weather soon separated the couple and Sergei made his way down to camp IV. He thought Francis may have done the same but never found her at camp. Sergei climbed back up the mountain with oxygen and medical supplies hoping to rescue his wife.
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An Uzbek team found Francis on May 23rd frostbitten and on the verge of death. They removed her to a lower location but since their oxygen ran out, they left her to make their own descent. They even passed Sergei along the way down who was making his way up. Tragically Sergei died in his attempt to rescue his wife as he simply vanished.
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On May 24th mountaineer Cathy O Dowd and Ian Woodall found Francis jerking rapidly on an Area called “first step” She was still attached to her climbing line and kept murmuring “don’t leave me here”. Humanity prevailed for once and the couple stayed almost an hour with Francis trying to save her.
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Unfortunately, nothing could be done for Francis in spite of repeated attempts to keep her conscious. The couple finally made a painful decision because their own oxygen had run out. They left her and returned to their own camp. Francis died that day her body remaining in that position where she was given the name “Sleeping beauty of Everest”. In 2007, Woodall returned to the mountain and deposited her body to a lower location where she remains there enshrined into the landscape of the mountain.
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When David Sharp summitted Everest successfully on his third attempt without oxygen he would have become a legend but today he is still a legend although a dead one. During his descent he found his way to the cave that was the resting place of green boots, Sharpe sat next to the body with his legs drawn to his chest. He was exhausted and suffering from severe frostbite. He didn’t die right away. Through his traumatic and painful ordeal he was passed by 40 mountaineers who noticed he was alive but none stopped to help him despite his pleas to do so. Sharp died soon after and his death resulted in an outrage questioning the so-called code of the mountain. Everest pioneer and the first summiteers Sir Edmund Hillary remarked.
“The whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying,” Hillary said. “A human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.”
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