November 28, 2012 4:08 pm
There Are Over 200 Bodies on Mount Everest, And They’re Used as Landmarks
Green Boots on Mount Everest. Photo: Dominic Goff
More than 200 people have died in their attempt to scale Mount Everest. The mountain offers seemingly endless options for kicking the bucket, from falling into the abyss to suffocating from lack of oxygen to being smashed by raining boulders. Yet climbers continue to try their skills – and luck – in tackling Everest, despite the obvious dangers. Indeed, the living pass the frozen, preserved dead along Everest’s routes so often that many bodies have earned nicknames and serve as trail markers. Here are a few of the more colorful tales, adapted from Altered Dimensions:
- The body of “Green Boots,” an Indian climber who died in 1996 and is believed to be Tsewang Paljor, lies near a cave that all climbers must pass on their way to the peak. Green Boots now serves as a waypoint marker that climbers use to gauge how near they are to the summit. Green Boots met his end after becoming separated from his party. He sought refuge in a mountain overhang, but to no avail. He sat there shivering in the cold until he died.
- In 2006, English climber David Sharp joined Green Boots. He stopped in the now-infamous cave to rest. His body eventually froze in place, rendering him unable to move but still alive. Over 40 climbers passed by him as he sat freezing to death. His plight might have been overlooked as passers-by assumed Sharp was the already-dead Green Boots. Eventually, some heard faint moans, realized he was still alive, and, too late, attempted to give him oxygen or help him stand.
- Francys Arsentiev was the first American woman to reach Everest’s summit without the aid of bottled oxygen, in 1998. But climbers do not recognize this as a successful ascent since she never made it down the mountain. Following a rough night time trek to camp, her husband, a fellow climber, noticed she was missing. Despite the dangers, he chose to turn back to find his wife anyway. On his way back, he encountered a team of Uzbek climbers, who said they had tried to help Francys but had to abandon her when their own oxygen became depleted. The next day, two other climbers found Francys, who was still alive but in too poor of a condition to be moved. Her husband’s ice axe and rope were nearby, but he was nowhere to be found. Francys died where the two climbers left her, and climbers solved her husband’s disappearance the following year when they found his body lower down on the mountain face where he fell to his death.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Conquering Everest
Inside the ER at Mount Everest
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
32 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Spelling: Here are a few of the more *colofrul* tales,
Comment by H Post — November 29, 2012 @ 10:24 am
The Altered Dimensions article from which this was adapted says over 30 climbers passed by David Sharp. This article says 40.
Comment by WJCarpenter — November 29, 2012 @ 1:30 pm
List of people who died climbing Mount Everest.
(Known Persons.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_climbing_Mount_Everest
Comment by David Powell — November 29, 2012 @ 9:25 pm
It was actually 50 climbers that passed him.
Comment by Bob Berbowski — November 29, 2012 @ 10:43 pm
I heard it was actually more like 60 climbers that passed him.
Comment by Your Dog Sells Steak — November 30, 2012 @ 3:22 pm
Everest climbers justify their horrid behavior by rationalizing, “They would’ve wanted me to continue on and make it.” Everest climbers suck. If I ever come across one of them in a car wreck, I’ll just get back in my car and keep on driving.
Comment by Joe-Bob Briggs — November 30, 2012 @ 3:50 pm
@Joe-Bob Briggs: That comment is so incredibly ignorant I don’t know where to begin. You obviously have never climbed a mountain so please keep your uninformed views on the subject to yourself.
Comment by L Stroganoff — December 5, 2012 @ 2:04 pm
You know, I’ve always viewed Everest climbers are very courageous people. And while, I still think they are, I am glad JoeBob made that comment because I never thought of it that way, and I think I have to agree, at least partially.
Comment by JC- Tampa — December 6, 2012 @ 4:19 pm
I’m not a mountain climber. But I’ve read a number of articles and some book excerpts on climbing Everest, just because I couldn’t understand why so many people want to do something that has killed so many people.
As I understand it, once you set out for the final ascent of Mount Everest, you are *actively*dying*. Even though the ascent is only attempted during the best weather conditions, those are still inimical to organic life. Climbers may have oxygen and food to replace the calories they are rapidly burning–they may even have some extra, though at that altitude they can only carry a small percentage of what a normal person can carry–but there’s just nothing man can make that can help you cope with that cold for longer than absolutely necessary. Climbers spend the whole ascent in physical agony and mentally confused due to the conditions.
It’s not that people passing troubled climbers think, “They’d want me to continue on.” It’s that people who are climbing Everest literally do not have the physical, mental, or supply resources to help other climbers. Someone in that state…you really assume they can think clearly enough to: 1) recognize someone needs help, 2) determine if they have the resources, and 3) be helpful rather than harmful to the person in need? Everyone who climbs Everest also knows this; you cannot expect help from other people who are incapable of giving it to you. Like everyone else on the climb, they are *dying*. Some are standing still, some are moving, but each person is at the extreme edge of his capabilities. The ones who are still moving *may* make it back to camp before they finish dying, and begin recovering. The ones who stop moving are probably not going to.
There are guides, sure. They’re paid to escort a group to the summit and back, and hopefully are experienced enough to think a little more clearly than the less experienced. And they lay in stashes of extra supplies along the way to help their clients. But they take a strictly limited number of clients because they know they can assist only a certain number of people, and no more–and even some of the guides have gotten confused, or chilled, or otherwise succumbed to the “actively dying” part of the climb.
Sometimes, miraculously, someone in trouble is recovered by extraordinary efforts of other amateur or professional climbers. But those are the exception, not the rule. The chances that you’ll make it back alive are already so small; the chances become much smaller if you stop for any reason.
I still don’t understand why people climb Mount Everest. But I have a greater understanding of why so many people die, and why so few people get help from other climbers.
Comment by G — December 7, 2012 @ 10:16 am
Its indeed horrific when things turn against climber on the mountain, every one has different way of deaths, some die in road accident,some aircrash,some due to Illiness and ofcourse when a climber takes the risk to climb a mountian ,can encournter such hostile situaitons ,where one can lose his/her life, however saying that LANDMARK BEING PASSING THE DEAD BODIES,IS ULTIMATELY AGAINST MOUNTAINEERING AND NATURE!!! we must respect the fellow climbers and ones death must be accepted as NATURAL and reason of ones death!!Its not like those who make it down safe are brave and those who died up on the mountains were weak or incompetent!! its all REASON FOR NATURAL DEATH! the climbers must help each other intimes of need!!!
Comment by mirza ali — December 10, 2012 @ 9:17 am
I have always been amazed at the stupidity of climbing Everest! After expending tremendous time and money to even get to the top, you most likely won’t even have a view, other than clouds, and that view has to be “enjoyed” for no more than 10 minutes or so, before making your way back down to a possible death that you luckily avoided on the way up! Everest climbers could probably be ranked in the top 10 most stupid groups of people on the planet! The only people they impress with this stupidity is other Everest climbers!
Comment by Bob Smith — December 13, 2012 @ 12:02 pm
WTF, is the only phrase that can describe this. It is, however, an interesting way of ‘thinning the herd’ of morons with no sense of self-preservation (unless of course it involves leaving a living person alone to die). Yep, these people are winners.
Comment by Magoonski — December 14, 2012 @ 9:09 am
I get 2 weeks vacation a year and one is used up for the holidays. Why would I climb a mountain vs. go to a beach….I can not relate.
Comment by KEGS — December 23, 2012 @ 10:17 pm
For those criticizing climbers who fail to help stranded/injured on mountains like Everest, you have to realize the conditions, both physical and physiological, they face.
Above, I think 26,000 feet, it is a deadly environment. The body can not survive there, wounds don’t even heal because all the body’s energy is used just keeping itself alive, and even that is a futile endeavor – but for a short period of time, hours to maybe a day or two, the body can not survive there.
For comparison, get together with a few friends, choose 1 and try to carry him/her for a mile. Then try to repeat it after a week of minimal sleep. Then try to do it while breathing through a straw… in winter. Now think of trying to do all that on the side of a mountain where a single misplaced step will cost YOU your life.
Do you still think you’d be so quick to help?
I’ve heard people say “ok, well even if someone can’t carry an injured climber down, they should at least have the decency to sit with the injured during their last moments.
It’s a nice thought, but those last moments can last hours. With temperatures often below zero, it’s only constant movement that maintains the body temperature people need to survive. If you stop moving, you freeze to death, so here again, any assistance you give to someone comes at the direct expense of your own survival.
Any one who climbs in those types of environment knows (or should darn well know) that to a large extent, they are taking their life into their own hands. When the conditions are such that it takes 100% of one’s focus and energy just to keep THEMSELVES alive, any assistance given to others comes at the direct expense of the assistance giver.
The analogy of driving away from the scene of a car accident is absurd in that a person in a normal environment has ample physical and mental (well, physical at least) capabilities to both render assistance AND maintain their own survival needs.
Additionally, in the cases of Sharp, Arsentiev and certainly others, they took far greater risks than most climbers. Sharp climbing completely alone and not even carrying a radio to communicate the need for assistance while he could have potentially continued largely under his own power. Francis Arsentiev climbed without any supplemental oxygen greatly increasing the chances of high altitude sickness, hypothermia and decreasing the body’s energy level.
There comes a point where you’d have to ask why should I risk my life trying to rescue someone who took unnecessarily high risks?
It’s very easy to sit behind a keyboard and criticize. In the occasional occurrences of someone (usually with mental issues) jumping into a bear or ape’s habitat at a zoo, do you also criticize all the people there for not also jumping in to render assistance? No, you say that person placed themselves in a dangerous position, and anyone else who jumped in would stand an equally high chance of being injured or killed. I fail to see how this situation is any different.
And then there are the comments that no one should ever climb in places that can lead to such life or death situations. As tragic as it is that people die there, people die in all manner of ways. People die swimming, riding bicycles, scuba diving, driving, heck, people die playing golf. No one suggests all these activities should be abandoned because people have, and certainly will, die in the process.
Climbing mountains like Everest just reduce a person’s choices and the outcome of those choices pretty close to black and white – live or die. Just realize that it’s far too easy to cast judgement from the comfort of your nice warm home sitting in front of a computer with a snack and drink at your side. Honestly try to put yourself into the situation of those you criticism.
And finally, as to the article itself, I believe the body of Greenboots has since been removed, the body of David Sharp was moved off the trail the year following his death and the body of Francis Arsentiev has been covered/wrapped in a flag and, I think, buried in snow. Climbers aren’t heartless people, most everyone would help if they could. The reality, however, is that in most cases, they simply can’t.
Comment by Chris — December 28, 2012 @ 10:33 am
Chris, comment above — beautiful and well written.
“For those criticizing climbers who fail to help stranded/injured on mountains like Everest, you have to realize the conditions, both physical and physiological. . .”
Comment by Nicolette — December 29, 2012 @ 8:06 am
Well written Chris. Particularly the evolution of difficulty which ended with the “straw”.
Comment by Saul — December 30, 2012 @ 10:17 pm
“It’s very easy to sit behind a keyboard and criticize. In the occasional occurrences of someone (usually with mental issues) jumping into a bear or ape’s habitat at a zoo, do you also criticize all the people there for not also jumping in to render assistance? No, you say that person placed themselves in a dangerous position, and anyone else who jumped in would stand an equally high chance of being injured or killed. I fail to see how this situation is any different.”
That’s a terrible comparison. It would be more like having a whole group of people jumping in to show off, but one guy jumping in with a slab of meat tied to his waist to get more attention. Those criticizing from behind their keyboard are the people smart enough to not jump in and put themselves and others at risk in the first place. The people guilty of not helping the guy have already jumped in themselves, and are doing dances around the bear while he’s eating people alive.
Plus, you’re actively comparing those who climb Everest to someone with “mental issues”, which doesn’t exactly help your argument.
Comment by Cryo — January 4, 2013 @ 5:37 pm
“Everest climbers justify their horrid behavior by rationalizing, “They would’ve wanted me to continue on and make it.” Everest climbers suck. If I ever come across one of them in a car wreck, I’ll just get back in my car and keep on driving.”
They would have wanted you to make it to work on time. (lol)
Comment by Nate Thomas — January 10, 2013 @ 9:04 am
I may sound harsh, but it seems to me, many Everest climbers seek glory, recognition and challenge for themselves, but they lack honor and humanity, not to mention extremely coarse and selfish. Isn’t Mt. Everest climbers the elite of the elite climbers?
In Marin and Special Forces, the elite of the armed forces, they do NOT leave their wounded or dead soldiers behind and risk their lives to bring back their wounded or dead soldiers in the middle of firefight, more deadly situation.
I can understand the difficulty of bringing back dead bodies, but using them as signposts along a climbing route repeatedly over many years? I know sherpas organized clean up of Mt. Everest summit few times, but not climbers!
Can you imagine or empathize with how their families and friends feel? Perhaps empathy is a rare quality among Mt. Everest climbers? Is climbing Mt. Everest (glory, recognition, challenge) more important than human decency and honor?
Do you want your own dead body to be used as a signpost on a climbing route on Mt. Everest?
Comment by Delarocha — January 16, 2013 @ 5:30 pm
“Do you want your own dead body to be used as a signpost on a climbing route on Mt. Everest?”
What a stupid question.
If I’m dead, what bloody choice do I have? More importantly, why would I care?
Comment by Matt — January 29, 2013 @ 6:34 pm
Chris said it all. People are so unreasonable.
“Everest climbers seek glory, recognition and challenge for themselves, but they lack honor and humanity, not to mention extremely coarse and selfish.”
How many Everest climbers do you know personally? Have you ever climbed even a mountain before? What’s wrong with seeking glory, recognition and challenge? How about Olympians, boxers, UFC fighters, soldiers, F1 racers, BMX contestants…… they must be all coarse and selfish in accomplishing their goals in your opinion ?
Comment by rico — February 13, 2013 @ 3:30 pm
If we were to list all the atrocities mankind has taken against each other..the list would be endless. We are not a kind species.
I say…..live…..and let live. People make their own choices.
Why do we behave the way we do? Because we choose to…because we ‘can’.
Just look around at world events. We are borderline ‘uncivilized’…we do not have the capacity to learn from our mistakes. History has proven that to be a fact.
Comment by Darlene — February 17, 2013 @ 10:34 am
After reading this, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only good reason for being on Everest is to clean up the detritus left behind by human pride and folly. Clean up the mountain, bring down all the bodies, oxygen tanks, and trash, and maybe nature (and your gods) will see it fit to forgive you.
Comment by M. Villasin — February 24, 2013 @ 1:23 pm
I climbed Mt. Everest last spring using oxygen and climbing with a Sherpa climbing partner. At 54, I’ve been climbing mountains, rock, ice and boulders for over 35 years.
When I first began climbing, the great goals were El Capitan in Yosemite and Mt. Everest. Over time, many climbers branched out to climb more exotic, more difficult mountains and faces around the world. But, for me, those two remained my personal goals.
One of the great things about climbing through years has been my friendships with my climbing partners. You get to know each other well sharing ledges, tents and hasty bivouacs. In all of that experience, you know that you would never leave your partner and your partner would never leave you. It’s the ultimate bond when you are so over-committed that the only way out is up and the only person you can believe in is at the other end of your rope willing to stop you if you fall.
In the popularization of Mt. Everest as a metaphor for Type-A achievers, there are a number of people who attempt the mountain who aren’t climbers and haven’t spent enough time sharing epics to learn the brother/sisterhood of the rope. A number of the folks you read about are successful business people who have turned to mountaineering as another way to test themselves, but not their empathy or loyalty to their partners.
I selected the outfitter and team that I climbed with based on that fact that they were highly experienced and the climbers that I would be sharing two months of my life with were, well, other climbers, not people working on a tick-list. Most of the people on my team had been on other 8000 meter peaks. My climbing partner had summited the Matterhorn when she was 14. I had summited Denali over 20 years previously.
We were all climbers. And we all spoke openly that we would take care of each other.
I don’t know how they count it, but the best estimate of caloric requirements for summit day is in the neighborhood of 15,000. If you’re like me, and are carrying an oxygen bottle, two liters of beverages, a camera, spare batteries, your pack nets out to about 45 pounds. The day ahead of you is roughly eight or so hours up, about three to four hours back to Camp 4 and 3,000 vertical feet in between. A good day even when climbing a 14-er in Colorado, let alone in the so called “Death Zone” above 26,000 feet.
Above 26,000 feet, the oxygen you carry basically keeps you warm. The biggest challenge of climbing at altitude is that your body can’t burn fat without oxygen. Instead, it burns protein – your muscle mass. By the time you’re making your summit push, your body is back using oxygen that makes you feel like you’re at only 23,000 feet instead of 26,000. In burning fat, you have the energy you missed and can stay a bit warmer. And you move a bit faster. Few things, however, can help when your brain begins swelling due to cerebral edema.
It’s the delightful combination of making the summit, combined with exhaustion, that lets you let down your guard. A slight bit of brain swelling makes you crave sitting down and resting. Most of the dead bodies – people – that I saw were within 500-800 vertical feet of Camp 4. At that point, one can only feel that they thought they were so close that they could sit down and take a rest. And in “resting” they allowed the slow, insidious swelling to take over their rational thought. At that point, so close to the safety of a tent and warm food, you can almost understand how other climbers could pass by thinking that surely someone else would easily help.
Personally, I would never forgive myself. No summit is worth the cost of anyone’s life.
In terms of using dead people as landmarks on the mountain, I’m calling bullshit. The Sherpa have a respect for life, and a fear of the dead that is respected among the top outfitters. My Sherpa climbing partner was in constant contact with our base camp and I never once heard a body used as a waypoint. On a mountain like Everest, there are plenty of historical geographical sources for waypoints – the Balcony, the South Summit, the Traverse, the Hillary Step – that there is no need to use a body.
Does it happen? Possibly. But let’s not run down a path that makes all Everest climbers a pack of self-serving shitheads.
In terms of pollution and oxygen bottles, every team pays a large deposit for clean up. Either you bring your garbage down, or you pay for someone else to do it. It’s pretty much the standard on most big mountains these days. The same is true for bodies. I filled out a form that established what I would want to have happen with my body if I died. The choices range from being placed in a crevassed, being cremated there and having your ashes spread there or sent home, or having your entire body shipped home. All represent a different cost covered by your rescue insurance.
For me, climbing Mt. Everest was one of the most spiritually moving and personal experiences I’ve ever had the chance to enjoy. Fortunately, I was able to share it with respectful, like-minded climbers, not self-centered over-achievers like we are painted to look like.
Comment by Bob — March 3, 2013 @ 10:05 pm
Save yourself from this idiotic and selfish waste of time, money, and lives, and many others like it, and do something really hard. Find a poor kid who needs a mentor, and stick with him/her.
Comment by Tom — March 18, 2013 @ 9:21 pm
I won’t judge the climbers because I haven’t been in their shoes, but, here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia quote from Sir Edmund Hillary according to Wikipedia:
Sir Edmund Hillary was highly critical of the decision not to try to rescue Sharp, saying that leaving other climbers to die is unacceptable, and the desire to get to the summit has become all-important. He also said, “I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top. It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say good morning and pass on by”. He also told the New Zealand Herald that he was horrified by the callous attitude of today’s climbers. “They don’t give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn’t impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die”, and that, “I think that their priority was to get to the top and the welfare of one of the … of a member of an expedition was very secondary.” [5]
Comment by Lore — March 21, 2013 @ 9:09 pm
@Cryo and similar commenters– you talk about these people as though they’re monsters for not helping. However, unless you live in a completely rural area, ESPECIALLY if you live in a city, I am willing to bet there are people NEAR YOU who are hungry… starving even, maybe freezing as they sleep on the streets.
So I hope every single one of you who are making negative comments and talking like these people are terrible, are going out of your way to do a lot for those who are struggling near you. Of course, it’s far easier to criticize people– especially on the internet from you warm homes, sitting behind a keyboard– than to actually go out, yourself, and do something to lessen human suffering.
@ Chris– well said.
@ Bob– Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Aaron — March 21, 2013 @ 9:32 pm
love the things on smithsonian.
thank you.
Comment by odis steadman — April 2, 2013 @ 4:13 pm
Has anyone here tried to carry–or drag–a body? 150-220+lb of dead weight? It’s not easy on level ground, at sea level. Those who are critical are condemning those who didn’t do it above 26,000ft, where you can’t see, move, or think clearly, and any extra time you take risks adding another body (yours) to the ground. Rescue is not a simple task. Even if you get someone down to camp IV, how long can you stay there? It’s not a cozy environment- even that height is seriously dangerous. To remove a dead body would require navigating extremely difficult terrain with said dead weight- ropes, ladders across crevasses, potential rock falls and collapses… people climb at their own risk. On everest the risk is high. Indeed, part of the problem is that people attempt the climb who are wealthier than they are experienced- and some extremely experienced people use the mountain to take extreme risks. Should everyone else risk themselves and/or their entire teams to take them down?
Comment by lusid — April 5, 2013 @ 1:27 am
These Darwin award candidates deserve what they got. They went there to test their skills. They failed. Stupid to wager your life just because you can then expect people to feel bad when you come out the loser.
Comment by Pyre of babies — April 23, 2013 @ 4:52 pm
People who want to climb Mount Everest are part of a strange sub, sub-culture. Since it costs around 100k to climb Everest, these are people from upper incomes.
To want to climb the highest peak in the world they are also high achievers.
I am not surprised that they don’t take a lot of time for those floundering on ascent or descent. They are like athletes trained to jump over those who fail in the field of competition. Also, about a third of those who go to Everest do not make it to the summit.
I personally feel it takes a person of limited imagination to think that climbing Everest is the greatest challenge. I also think it is selfish, esp. with a 5% (or higher depending) risk of death.
Solve world hunger, attain peace in the Middle East…those things are huge and would benefit us all.
Comment by MayRay — May 18, 2013 @ 7:50 pm
…and p.s.: I would rather engage in outdoor activities that do not use dead bodies as landmarks. Creepy.
Comment by MayRay — May 18, 2013 @ 7:51 pm