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10 Mind Blowing Stories about the Frozen Bodies left on top of Mount Everest

By Andrew Alpin, 10 November 2017

7The British pilot who tried to climb Everest armed only with prayer

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.

British pilot who tried to climb Everest

Image Source: www.alpklubspb.ru

8Ghost Snowboarder on Everest

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.

Frenchman Marco Siffredi

Image Source: www.cdn-snowboarding.transworld.net

9The darkest hour on Everest

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.

The darkest hour on Everest

Image Source: www.haberler.com

10He met his friend’s body on Everest

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.

Peter Kinloch