Trigger warning: explicit detailed descriptions of deceased climbers’ bodies
HighlightsMelting ice on Mount Everest exposing bodies of deceased climbers due to climate change.Five unnamed frozen bodies, including skeletal remains, retrieved in Nepal’s mountain clean-up campaign.310 deaths since the 1920s; most deaths attributed to acute mountain sickness, falls, avalanches, and exhaustion.
Five unnamed (as of yet) frozen bodies were retrieved — including one that was just skeletal remains — as part of Nepal’s mountain clean-up campaign on Everest and adjoining peaks Lhotse and Nuptse,CBS Newsreported on Thursday (June 27).
As per theCBS Newsreport, rescuers took hours to chip away the ice with axes, with the team sometimes using boiling water to release its frozen grip.
Aditya Karki, a major in Nepal’s army who led the team of 12 military personnel and 18 climbers, told the American broadcaster: “Because of the effects ofglobal warming, (the bodies and trash) are becoming more visible as the snow cover thins.”
Image credits:Grand Discovery
Since expeditions to Mount Everest began in the 1920s, over 310 people have died attempting to summit the mountain, according toBig Think.
The death toll has risen as more climbers have attempted the ascent, but the death rate has decreased due to improved safety measures and better equipment, as perMountEverest.info.
The causes of death onMount Everestvary, but the most common include acute mountain sickness, falls, avalanches, hypothermia, and exhaustion.
The high-altitude “Death Zone” above 8,000 meters is particularly perilous due to the lack of oxygen, which severely impairs climbers’ abilities to make sound judgments and increases the likelihood of fatal errors,Big Thinkexplains.
Image credits:Our Amazing Home
According to the latest figures fromEverestMountain.co.uk, nine people have died on the mountain this year.
These deaths encompassed Mongolian pair Usukhjargal Tsedendamba and Purevsuren Lkhagvajav, who were found high on Everest descending from the summit. They had reportedly climbed without Sherpa support or added oxygen.
The word “Sherpa” is commonly used to describe someone who is a mountain guide or porter working in the Everest area, theBBCstates. But Sherpa is actually the name of an ethnic group of people who live in the mountains of Nepal, central Asia.
While descending from the summit, Daniel Paul Peterson and Pasang Tenji Sherpa were also caught in a sudden cornice fall and have not been found as of yet,EverestMountain.co.ukreported on June 1.
The problems have been particularly concentrated in the so-called “Death Zone”
Moreover, Kenyan mountaineer Cheruiyot Kirui went missing on May 22, and his body was found close to the summit soon after. Nawang Sherpa climbed with Cheruiyot but has reportedly not returned to base camp.
A 37-year-oldNepaliclimber, Binod Babu Bastakoti, died at about 8,200 meters (26,902 feet) on May 22.
Additionally, Banshi Lal, an Indian national, died at HAMS hospital in Kathmandu on May 27, where he was undergoing treatment. Banshi was rescued from Mount Everest and airlifted to Kathmandu on May 21 after displaying signs of acute mountain sickness.
Finally, a 48-year-old Romanian, Gabriel Tabara, was found dead inside his tent at Camp Three on May 21. He was reportedly attempting to climb Lhotse without using supplementary oxygen.
Image credits:Business Insider
Others, still dressed in their bright climbing gear, serve as somber landmarks along the route to the summit.
Notable examples include “Green Boots,” the body of an unidentified climber on the main Northeast ridge route of Mount Everest, and “Sleeping Beauty,” identified as Francys Arsentiev, who died in 1998 during her descent.
Army Major Aditya toldAFP: “People believe that they are entering a divine space when they climbmountains, but if they see dead bodies on the way up, it can have a negative effect.”
A team of professionals has been risking their own lives to bring corpses down
One body, encased in ice up to its torso, took the climbers 11 hours to free,CBS Newsreported.
Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa, who led the body retrieval expedition, admitted: “It is extremely difficult.
“Getting the body out is one part, bringing it down is another challenge.”
Tshiring reportedly said some of the bodies still appear almost as they had at the moment of death — dressed in full gear, along with their crampons and harnesses.
Image credits:Everest Mystery
The retrieval of corpses at high altitudes is a controversial topic for the climbing community, costing thousands of dollars, with up to eight rescuers needed for each body,CBS Newsreported.
A body can weigh over 220 pounds (just under 100 kilograms), and at high altitudes, a person’s ability to carry heavy loads is severely affected.
Nevertheless, Aditya explained: “We have to bring them back as much as possible.
“If we keep leaving them behind, our mountains will turn into agraveyard.”
Five unnamed frozen bodies were retrieved — including one that was just skeletal remains
Image credits:Mountain QueenBodies are reportedly often wrapped in a bag and then put on a plastic sled to drag down.Tshiring said that bringing one body down from close to Lhotse’s 8,516-metre peak — the world’s fourth-highest mountain — has been among the hardest challenges so far, according to the news outlet.He recalled: “The body was frozen with hands and legs spread.“We had to carry it down to Camp Three as it was, and only then could it be moved to be put in a sled to be dragged.”The summit of Mount Everest has become trash heap.The mountain’s slopes are “littered with discarded empty oxygen canisters, abandoned tents, food containers, and even human feces.” That litter has contaminated the local watershed.https://t.co/Nro5ajRTn9pic.twitter.com/V2pULLtIIs— Nathaniel St. Clair (@NatStClair)December 18, 2023Camp Three is a 30-degree snow slope with rocky exposed ledges on which climbers’ tents are perched,360 Expeditionsexplains. This camp serves only as a short resting point.“You can’t linger at this height and doing anything as simple as crawling into your tent and taking off your crampons can be overwhelmingly exhausting,” 360 Expeditions states.Rakesh Gurung, from Nepal’s tourism department, reportedly said two bodies had been preliminarily identified, and authorities were awaiting “detailed tests” for the final confirmation.The retrieved bodies are now in the capital, Kathmandu, with those not identified likely to be eventually cremated,CBS Newsreported.Nepal’s mountain clean-up campaign on Everest andadjoining peaks, Lhotse and Nuptse,was launchedApproximately 200 to 250 bodies remain on Mount Everest, either frozen in place along climbing routes or entombed in the snowfields and glaciers descending from the mountain.pic.twitter.com/6cmWMkAHzc— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful)January 4, 2024The clean-up campaign, with a budget of over $600,000, also reportedly employed 171 Nepali guides and porters to bring back about 12 tons ofgarbage.Fluorescent tents, discarded climbing equipment, empty gas canisters, and even human excreta litter the well-trodden route to the summit, as per the broadcaster.Tshiring said: “The mountains have given us mountaineers so many opportunities.“I feel that we have to give back to them, we have to remove the trash and bodies to clean the mountains.”Each climbing season, over 600 climbers, along with numerous support staff, contribute to the growing trash problem on the mountain.On average, each climber generates about eight kilograms (18 pounds) of waste, including discarded oxygen canisters, food containers, and even human waste, according to theNational Geographic Society.“Time to bring them home,” a reader commented
Image credits:Mountain Queen
Bodies are reportedly often wrapped in a bag and then put on a plastic sled to drag down.
Tshiring said that bringing one body down from close to Lhotse’s 8,516-metre peak — the world’s fourth-highest mountain — has been among the hardest challenges so far, according to the news outlet.
He recalled: “The body was frozen with hands and legs spread.
“We had to carry it down to Camp Three as it was, and only then could it be moved to be put in a sled to be dragged.”
The summit of Mount Everest has become trash heap.
The mountain’s slopes are “littered with discarded empty oxygen canisters, abandoned tents, food containers, and even human feces.” That litter has contaminated the local watershed.https://t.co/Nro5ajRTn9pic.twitter.com/V2pULLtIIs
— Nathaniel St. Clair (@NatStClair)December 18, 2023
Camp Three is a 30-degree snow slope with rocky exposed ledges on which climbers’ tents are perched,360 Expeditionsexplains. This camp serves only as a short resting point.
“You can’t linger at this height and doing anything as simple as crawling into your tent and taking off your crampons can be overwhelmingly exhausting,” 360 Expeditions states.
Rakesh Gurung, from Nepal’s tourism department, reportedly said two bodies had been preliminarily identified, and authorities were awaiting “detailed tests” for the final confirmation.
The retrieved bodies are now in the capital, Kathmandu, with those not identified likely to be eventually cremated,CBS Newsreported.
Nepal’s mountain clean-up campaign on Everest andadjoining peaks, Lhotse and Nuptse,was launched
Approximately 200 to 250 bodies remain on Mount Everest, either frozen in place along climbing routes or entombed in the snowfields and glaciers descending from the mountain.pic.twitter.com/6cmWMkAHzc
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful)January 4, 2024
The clean-up campaign, with a budget of over $600,000, also reportedly employed 171 Nepali guides and porters to bring back about 12 tons ofgarbage.
Fluorescent tents, discarded climbing equipment, empty gas canisters, and even human excreta litter the well-trodden route to the summit, as per the broadcaster.
Tshiring said: “The mountains have given us mountaineers so many opportunities.
“I feel that we have to give back to them, we have to remove the trash and bodies to clean the mountains.”
Each climbing season, over 600 climbers, along with numerous support staff, contribute to the growing trash problem on the mountain.
On average, each climber generates about eight kilograms (18 pounds) of waste, including discarded oxygen canisters, food containers, and even human waste, according to theNational Geographic Society.
“Time to bring them home,” a reader commented
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