Lost on Everest. corpses on everest

Many people know that conquering peaks is deadly and those who climb do not always descend. Both beginners and experienced climbers die on the Mountain. But to my surprise, not many people know that the dead remain where fate has caught them. It is at least strange for us, people of civilization, the Internet and the city, to hear that the same Everest has long turned into a cemetery. There are countless corpses on it and no one is in a hurry to lower them down - it is too dangerous to take on additional burden.

Everest is the modern Golgotha. Anyone who goes there knows that he has a chance not to return. Roulette with the Mountain, lucky - no luck. Not everything depends on you: a hurricane wind, a frozen valve on an oxygen tank, incorrect timing, an avalanche, exhaustion, etc. Everest often proves to people that they are mortal. At least the fact that when you go up you see the bodies of those who are never destined to go down again.

According to statistics, about 1500 people climbed the mountain. Remained there (according to various sources) from 120 to 200. Can you imagine? Here is a very revealing statistics until 2002 about the people who died on the mountain (name, nationality, date of death, place of death, cause of death, whether he reached the top).

Among these 200 people there are those who will always meet new conquerors. According to various sources, there are eight openly lying bodies on the northern route. Among them are two Russians. From the south is about ten. And if you move left or right...

I will tell only about the most famous losses:

"Why are you going to Everest?" asked George Mallory.

"Because he is!"

I am among those who believe that Mallory was the first to conquer the summit and died already on the descent. In 1924, the Mallory-Irving team launched an assault. They were last seen through binoculars in a break in the clouds just 150 meters from the summit. Then the clouds converged and the climbers disappeared.

The mystery of their disappearance, the first Europeans who remained on Sagarmatha, worried many. But it took many years to find out what happened to the climber.

In 1975, one of the conquerors assured that he saw some body off the main path, but did not approach, so as not to lose strength. It took another twenty years for in 1999, when traversing the slope from the 6th high-altitude camp (8290 m) to the west, the expedition stumbled upon many bodies that had died over the past 5-10 years. Mallory was found among them. He was lying on his stomach, sprawled, as if hugging a mountain, his head and hands were frozen into the slope.

On the video it is clearly seen that the climber's tibia and fibula are broken. With such an injury, he was no longer able to continue the journey.

“Turned over - eyes closed. This means that he did not die suddenly: when they break, for many they remain open. They didn’t lower it - they buried it there. ”

Irving was never found, although the harness on Mallory's body suggests that the couple were with each other until the very end. The rope was cut with a knife and perhaps Irving could move around and left his comrade, died somewhere down the slope.

In 1934, the Englishman Wilson made his way to Everest, disguised as a Tibetan monk, who decided to prayerfully cultivate the willpower in himself sufficient to climb to the top. After unsuccessful attempts to reach the North Col, abandoned by the Sherpas accompanying him, Wilson died of cold and exhaustion. His body, as well as the diary he wrote, were found by an expedition in 1935.

A well-known tragedy that shocked many occurred in May 1998. Then a married couple died - Sergey Arsentiev and Francis Distefano.

Sergey Arsentiev and Francis Distefano-Arsentiev, having spent three nights (!) at 8,200 m, climbed and reached the summit on 05/22/1998 at 18:15. The ascent was made without the use of oxygen. Thus, Francis became the first American woman and only the second woman in history to climb without oxygen.

During the descent, the couple lost each other. He went down to the camp. She is not.

The next day, five Uzbek climbers went to the top past Francis - she was still alive. The Uzbeks could help, but for this they refused to climb. Although one of their comrades has already ascended, in this case the expedition is already considered successful.

On the descent we met Sergei. They said they saw Francis. He took oxygen tanks and went. But he disappeared. Probably blown away by a strong wind into a two-kilometer abyss.

The next day there are three other Uzbeks, three Sherpas and two from South Africa - 8 people! They approach her - she has already spent the second cold night, but she is still alive! Again, everyone passes by - to the top.

“My heart sank when I realized that this man in a red and black suit was alive, but completely alone at an altitude of 8.5 km, just 350 meters from the summit,” recalls the British climber. “Kathy and I, without thinking, turned off the route and tried to do everything possible to save the dying woman. Thus ended our expedition, which we had been preparing for years, begging for money from sponsors ... We did not immediately manage to get to it, although it lay close. Moving at such a height is the same as running underwater...

When we found her, we tried to dress the woman, but her muscles atrophied, she looked like a rag doll and muttered all the time: “I am an American. Please, do not leave me"...

We dressed her for two hours. My concentration was lost due to a bone-piercing rattling sound that broke the ominous silence, Woodhall continues his story. “I realized that Katie was about to freeze to death herself. We had to get out of there as soon as possible. I tried to lift Frances and carry her, but it was useless. My futile attempts to save her put Kathy at risk. We couldn't do anything."

Not a day went by that I didn't think about Frances. A year later, in 1999, Katie and I decided to try again to get to the top. We succeeded, but on the way back we were horrified to notice the body of Francis, she lay exactly as we left it, perfectly preserved under the influence of low temperatures.

Nobody deserves such an end. Cathy and I promised each other to return to Everest again to bury Frances. It took 8 years to prepare a new expedition. I wrapped Francis in an American flag and included a note from my son. We pushed her body into a cliff, away from the eyes of other climbers. Now she rests in peace. Finally, I was able to do something for her." Ian Woodhall.

A year later, the body of Sergei Arsenyev was found: “I apologize for the delay with photos of Sergei. We definitely saw him - I remember the purple puffy suit. He was in a sort of bowing position, lying just behind the Jochenovsky (Jochen Hemmleb - expedition historian - S.K.) "implicit rib" in the Mallory area at about 27150 feet (8254 m). I think it's him." Jake Norton, member of the 1999 expedition.

But in the same year there was a case when people remained people. On the Ukrainian expedition, the guy spent almost the same place as the American, a cold night. His own people lowered him to the base camp, and then more than 40 people from other expeditions helped. He got off lightly - four fingers were removed.

“In such extreme situations, everyone has the right to decide: to save or not to save a partner ... Above 8000 meters you are completely occupied with yourself and it is quite natural that you do not help another, since you have no extra strength”. Miko Imai.

“It is impossible to afford the luxury of morality at an altitude of more than 8000 meters”

In 1996, a group of climbers from the Japanese University of Fukuoka climbed Mount Everest. Very close to their route were three distressed climbers from India - emaciated, ill people got into a high-altitude storm. The Japanese passed by. A few hours later, all three were dead.

I highly recommend reading the article by the member of the expedition to Everest from the GEO magazine "Nadine with death". About the greatest catastrophe of the decade on Gor. About how, due to a bunch of circumstances, 8 people died, including two group commanders. Later, the film "Death on Everest" was filmed based on the author's book.

Terrible footage of the Discovery channel in the TV series Everest - Beyond the Limits of the Possible. When the group finds a freezing person, they shoot him on camera, but only are interested in the name, leaving him to die alone in an ice cave ( excerpt).

“The corpses on the route are a good example and a reminder to be more careful on the mountain. But every year there are more and more climbers, and according to the statistics of corpses, it will increase every year. What is unacceptable in normal life is regarded as the norm at high altitudes.” Alexander Abramov.

When Prince Siddhartha was born, it was prophesied that he would renounce all his vast inheritance and become a great teacher.
Fearing that the prophecy would come true, his father, the Raja of one of the Indian principalities, surrounded his son with care and comfort.
One of the orders of the raja was to clean the city streets from sick and infirm people, the sight and conversations with which could force Siddhartha to escape from the fate of the heir to the principality.

But nevertheless, the prince was concerned about the problems of commoners.
One day, in the thirtieth year of his life, Siddhartha, accompanied by the charioteer Channa, got out of the palace. There he saw "four spectacles" that changed his whole subsequent life: a poor old man, a sick man, a decaying corpse and a hermit.
Then he realized the harsh reality of life - that illness, torment, aging and death are inevitable and neither wealth nor nobility can protect against them, and that the path of self-knowledge is the only way to comprehend the causes of suffering.

This prompted him, in his thirtieth year, to leave his home, family and possessions and go in search of a way to get rid of suffering.

Today we know this great man by the name of Buddha.

At the heart of his teaching was the concept of impermanence, that we should live our lives as productively as possible and not be afraid of death.

Buddhists usually face death soberly. Many of them are also calm about the corpses. They make a distinction between the body of a person, a temporary refuge and his soul - an immortal essence, which is destined for eternal real life.

Perhaps because we, foreigners, lead a much more mundane lifestyle, it is very uncomfortable for us to be near dead bodies. As a rule, they make either a squeamish or disgusting impression on us. We are unable to distinguish between the earthly body and eternal life.
Many of us are afraid of dead bodies, but strangely enough, if the corpse becomes more and more difficult to identify, then the horror that arose for him is erased.
We are horrified when we see how a pathologist works with recently deceased people, but at the same time we can quite calmly observe the work of an archaeologist who dug up the skeleton of a person from the distant past.

One of the things that shocks and surprises the people I tell about my climb of Everest is that they think that I climb to the top by stepping over a huge number of corpses.
But why weren't these bodies lowered down and buried according to the canons of the Buddhist religion? they ask me.

But before I answer this question, I'm going to debunk the popular media myth that Everest is literally littered with the bodies of dead climbers.
Debunking this myth is very important, because it is on it that the proof that climbing Everest is inherently unethical rests. You won’t believe it, but many people even hold a grudge against climbers who climb Everest, believing that they are completely devoid of conscience, that they will stop at nothing to reach the top of Everest, and that climbers are ready to go to the top even over the corpses of their comrades.

Returning to the theme of the myth - we can say with confidence that Everest is littered with the bodies of dead climbers exactly as much as Antarctica is littered with the bodies of the dead pioneers of the Shackleton era.

Yes, it is true that more than 200 people have died on Everest, and that the bodies of the vast majority of them are still on the mountain.
But on the other hand, Everest is a huge territory, and most of the bodies of the dead are hidden in the depths of the North Face, the Kangshung Wall and the Khumbu Glacier. These "burials" are as inaccessible as if the bodies were buried several hundred meters underground. And even more so, not a single climber will stumble or step over them when climbing to the top.

Perhaps the best example of this is on the North East Ridge of Everest in 1924.
Some people believe that if climbers can find Irwin's body, then he will also have a camera with him, which can reveal the century-old secret of Everest: whether Irwin and Mallory were on its summit in 1924.

However, for almost 100 years now, climbers have been looking for Irwin's body on the North Slope... For this, both a visual method and aerial photographs and satellite images are used. But all searches are in vain, and apparently Irwin's body will never be found.

There are many more corpses in our city cemetery, and they lie much denser.... Of course, not everyone is hidden from view, but at the same time, each tombstone marks these bodies, but there are also places where there are no tombstones.... which means, that when I walk with my relatives, I involuntarily step over or even step on the graves of other people who have long since rested.

So let's stop responding to tabloid headlines. Everest is not littered with corpses!
Over the past 100 years, less than 300 people have died in this mountain range. There are hundreds of other places on Earth that have had far greater casualties.
But what is it that shocks people so much when we talk about corpses on Everest? Perhaps the fact that these bodies remain on the side of the mountain and are not taken out to the valleys, where they could be buried in the ground.
So why is this happening?

The simple answer to this question is the fact that in most cases it is simply impossible to carry out such an operation.
Helicopters cannot operate at high altitude due to the rarefied atmosphere, and from the side of Tibet, their flights to the highlands are generally prohibited by the Chinese government!

Even if a person died in the arms of his comrades, the descent of the body from a great height will take all the climbers and Sherpas of the expedition, and in the pre-summit zone, even the coordinated work of the entire team may not help in the descent.
Most climbers, stepping above the "death zone" are aware of this fine line between life and death. And they consider their first priority to be their safety and not to reach the top at all costs.
In addition, a special operation to remove the body of the deceased from the mountain to the valley will cost more than tens of thousands of dollars to the family of the deceased, and it will also endanger the lives of other climbers participating in this operation.
Climber insurance usually covers search and rescue work, but these insurances do not work if a body removal operation is carried out.

The bodies of those climbers who died after falling off the route are often unattainable for the rescue team, and in such harsh conditions, these bodies freeze into ice very quickly.

The bodies of those climbers who died from exhaustion, located near the ascent route, are often on the border of the field of view, or after a while, they end up on the slopes of the South-Western Wall or on Kangshung from Tibet.
A similar thing happened to David Sharp, a British climber who died on the northeast ridge in 2006. His body was removed from the climbing route at the request of his relatives.
A similar thing happened to the Indian climber Tsevan Paljor, who died in 1996, but his body remained in plain sight in a niche on the northeastern part of the ridge for almost 20 years: but now it is not there ... apparently it was removed from the route.

However, every year people die on Everest, and in most cases their bodies remain on the mountain. If you make an attempt to climb to the top and climb it, you will surely notice several bodies of the dead along the way.

I also walked near the bodies of the dead, but I did not dwell on them. I understood that these few bodies were only a small fraction of those dead who had remained here forever over the past decades.
I saw that some bodies lay on the route, they died from exhaustion, and I could understand how they died, I knew how they suffered and understood that I could not afford to leave my family and friends with such grief.

Please pay attention to this photo. It shows a view of a section of the Everest route from the third step. The photo was taken from a height of 8600 meters. With its detailed study, you can see four corpses on the slope of Everest.
The two bodies lying close to the route most likely died from exhaustion. One body is 50 meters below, partially covered in snow, and another hangs from the edge of a rocky area. These bodies were taken away from the trail by climbers, which was essentially the equivalent of a burial.

In general, in this area, at the third step, there are a large number of bodies of the dead, this is due to the fact that from here, the top of Everest seems to be at arm's length, and this deceptive fact makes climbers move to the top, regardless of their condition, when the right decision was would turn down.

Let me remind you once again that this photo was taken at around 8600 meters and only about 100 people a year pass this section, and those who have the strength to reach such a height already find it hard to find more strength to fight for their own survival.
Only in this photo I found the bodies of two more dead climbers, because in fact, with my own eyes, I saw only two on this step ...
But as paradoxical as it sounds, these two bodies helped me survive my ascent.

I have since removed this photo from my blog to prevent inappropriate comments and conversations.
I left here only a low-resolution version of the photo, so that it would be very difficult to distinguish the bodies of the dead.

Some people who hear about the bodies lying on Everest say that the mountain should be closed for climbing, in memory of those who stayed there forever.
I do not quite understand this approach, but I think that such an opinion arises when people do not know at all what mountaineering is, what mountain climbing is.
Climbers who go to Everest understand and are aware of the risks, they themselves have chosen to take this risk, because climbing and victories enrich their lives.

Of course, not everyone believes that such a risk is worth the reward, but this is the choice of every climber. Climbing and mountains is not a place where it is wise to interfere with the choices of others.
I do not know a single climber who would like the mountain to be closed for climbing in memory of the dead, those who took the risk and their risk was higher than they could overcome.

Perhaps it would be easier if people took climbing Everest as a metaphor for life. And if you want to live life - you must admit that from time to time you will see corpses, because the dead are part of real life.
Perhaps this view will help to more soberly assess the situation with Everest and understand what the corpses on the mountainside mean.
Each death is a tragedy for the relatives and friends of the deceased, but death is an invariable part of our existence. Death accompanies all of us throughout life. And when someone dies, we can learn to be more merciful and become a better person.

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There are several reasons why those who die on Everest are not always collected.

Reason one: technical complexity

There are several ways to climb any mountain. Everest - the highest mountain in the world, 8848 meters above sea level, is located on the border of two states: Nepal and China. On the Nepalese side, the worst part is at the bottom - if only the starting height of 5300 can be called "down". This is the Khumbu Icefall: a giant "stream" consisting of huge blocks of ice. The path runs through cracks many meters deep along the stairs laid instead of bridges. The width of the stairs is just equal to the boot in the "cat" - a device for walking on ice. If the deceased is from Nepal, it is unthinkable to evacuate him through this segment on his hands. The classic climbing route passes through the spur of Everest - the eight-thousand-meter Lhotse ridge. There are 7 high-altitude camps along the way, many of them are just ledges, on the edge of which tents are molded. There are many dead people here...

In 1997, on Lhotse, Vladimir Bashkirov, a member of the Russian expedition, developed heart problems from overloads. The group consisted of professional climbers, they correctly assessed the situation and went down. But this did not help: Vladimir Bashkirov died. They put him in a sleeping bag and hung him on a rock. On one of the passes, a commemorative plaque was erected in his honor.

If desired, you can carry out the evacuation of the body, but this requires an agreement with the pilots regarding non-stop loading, since there is nowhere for the helicopter to land. Such a case was in the spring of 2014, when an avalanche descended on a group of Sherpas who were laying the track. 16 people died. Those who could be found were taken out by helicopter, putting the bodies in sleeping bags. The wounded were also evacuated.

Reason two: the deceased is in an inaccessible place

The Himalayas are a vertical world. Here, if a person breaks loose, he flies hundreds of meters, often along with a lot of snow or stones. Himalayan avalanches have incredible power and volume. The friction snow begins to melt. A person caught in an avalanche should, if possible, make swimming movements, then he has a chance to stay on the surface. If at least ten centimeters of snow remain above it, it is doomed. The avalanche, stopping, freezes in seconds, forming an incredibly dense ice crust. In the same 1997 on Annapurna, professional climbers Anatoly Boukreev and Simone Moro, together with cameraman Dmitry Sobolev, fell under an avalanche. Moro dragged about a kilometer to the base camp, he was injured, but survived. Boukreev and Sobolev were not found. The tablet dedicated to them is located on another pass ...

Reason three: the death zone

According to the rules of climbers, everything that is above 6000 above sea level is a death zone. The principle “every man for himself” applies here. From here, even the injured or dying, most often no one will undertake to pull out. Every breath, every movement is too hard. A slight overload or imbalance on a narrow ridge - and the savior himself will be in the role of a victim. Although most often to save a person it is enough just to help him descend to the height to which he already has acclimatization. In 2013, a tourist from one of the largest and most reputable Moscow travel companies died on Everest at an altitude of 6000 meters. He moaned and suffered all night, and by morning he was gone.

An opposite example - or rather, an unprecedented situation - occurred in 2007 in China. A couple of climbers: Russian guide Maxim Bogatyrev with an American tourist named Anthony Piva went to the seven-thousander Muztag-Ata. Already near the top, they saw a tent covered with snow, from which someone waved a mountain stick at them. The snow was waist deep, and digging a trench was hellishly difficult. There were three completely exhausted Koreans in the tent. They ran out of gas, and they could neither melt the snow for themselves nor cook food. They even went to the toilet for themselves. Bogatyrev tied them right in the sleeping bag and dragged them down, one by one, to the base camp. Anthony walked in front and traced the road in the snow. Even once to climb from 4000 meters to 7000 is a huge load, but here I had to do three.

Reason four: high cost

Helicopter rental is about 5000 US dollars. Plus - the complexity: landing is likely to be impossible, respectively, someone, and not alone, must rise, find the body, drag it to the place where the helicopter can safely hover, and organize loading. Moreover, no one can guarantee the success of the enterprise: at the last moment, the pilot may discover the risk of hooking the rock with propellers, or there will be problems with removing the body, or suddenly the weather will deteriorate and the whole operation will have to be curtailed. Even with a favorable set of circumstances, the evacuation will come out in the region of 15-18 thousand dollars - not counting other expenses, such as international flights and air transportation of the body with transfers. Since direct flights to Kathmandu are only in Asia.

Reason five: fuss with references

Let's add: international fuss. Much will depend on the level of dishonesty of the insurance company. It is necessary to prove that the person is dead and remained on the mountain. If he bought a tour from a company, take a certificate of death of a tourist from this company, and she will not be interested in giving such evidence against herself. Collect documents at home. Coordinate with the embassy of Nepal or China: depending on which side of Everest is in question. Find a translator: Chinese is still okay, but Nepalese is difficult and rare. If there is any inaccuracy in the translation, you will have to start all over again.

Get airline approval. Certificates from one country must be valid in another. All this through translators and notaries.

Theoretically, you can cremate the body on the spot, but in fact in China everything will get stuck trying to prove that this is not the destruction of evidence, and in Kathmandu the crematorium is located in the open air, and the ashes are dumped into the Bagmati River.

Reason six: the state of the body

The high altitude Himalayas have very dry air. The body quickly dries up, mummifies. It is unlikely that it will be delivered in its entirety. And to see what a loved one has turned into, probably, few people want to. This does not require a European mentality.

Reason seven: he would like to stay there

We are talking about people who climbed on foot to the height of long-range aviation, met sunrises on the way to the top, lost friends in this snowy world. It is difficult to imagine their spirit enclosed between the numerous graves of a quiet cemetery or in a cell of a columbarium.

And against the background of all of the above, this is a very weighty argument.

Mountains cover one third of the Earth's land surface. The Himalayas have 11 peaks over eight kilometers high. At 8848 meters above sea level, the highest point on the planet rises - the peak, called in Tibetan Chomolungma, in Nepalese - Sagarmakhta, which means "forehead of heaven." And the British called it Everest, in honor of the head of the cartographic service, George Everest, who devoted more than 30 years of his life to filming this area of ​​the former British colony.
Conversation with the mountains
On the approach to the famous mountain, on passes five kilometers high, prayer flags are tied to pyramid-shaped branches. People talk for hours with the mountains, looking at the peaks that go to infinity. Everest opens from the Ja-Tsuo-La pass. The base tourist camp of Chomolungma is located a stone's throw from the Rongbuk monastery. The famous artist Vasily Vereshchagin, traveling in those places, wrote: “Whoever has not been in such a climate, at such a height, cannot form an idea of ​​the blueness of the sky - this is something amazing, incredible ...”.
But high mountains are a cruel element, complex and unpredictable, and climbers have no time to admire the beauty of heaven. Every step on the deadly path requires the utmost attention and prudence. For climbers, climbing Everest is often the achievement of a lifetime and the chance of becoming… an unusual mummy.
They were the first
The British expedition of 1921 chose the route for the summit. General Charles Bruce first suggested the idea of ​​recruiting porters from the Sherpa tribes living in the vicinity. In May 1922, the British set up an assault camp at an altitude of 7600 meters. George Mallory, Edward Norton, Howard Somervell and Henry Morshead climbed up to 8000 meters. And George Ingle Finch, Bruce Jr. and Tezhbir made the first attempt to storm with oxygen tanks - "English air", as the Sherpas mockingly called it. The expedition had to be curtailed, as seven Sherpas, the first victims of Everest, died in an avalanche.
In 1924, during the expedition, the Norton-Somervell pair first went up, but soon Somervell felt ill and returned. Norton without oxygen rose to 8570 meters. A bunch of Mallory and Irvine went on the assault on June 6. The next day they were seen in a break in the clouds, like two black dots on a snowy field near the top. No one else saw them alive. In 1933, Irwin's ice ax was found near the north ridge of Wyn Harris. And on May 1, 1999, Konrad Anker saw a boot sticking out of the snow. It was Mallory's body. According to experts, they could conquer Everest on June 8, 1924 and died during the descent, falling off the ridge during the beginning of a snowstorm. In Mallory's pockets they found a wallet and documents, but there was no photograph of his wife and a British flag - he promised to leave them on top. It remains a mystery whether the explorers climbed Everest? After a series of unsuccessful expeditions, on May 26, 1953, Henry Hunt and Da Namgyal Sherpa brought a tent and food to a height of 8500 meters. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who climbed a day later, spent the night in it and at nine o'clock in the morning on May 29 they climbed to the top of Everest! But the Western media claimed for a long time that the first conqueror was a white from New Zealand, Sir Hillary, and the native Sherpa Norgay was not even mentioned. Only many years later, justice was restored.
"Zone of death" and moral principles
An altitude of more than 7500 meters is called the "death zone". Due to the lack of oxygen and cold, a person cannot stay there for a long time. And in acute cases of mountain sickness, climbers develop swelling of the brain and lungs, coma and death occur.
In 1982, 11 Soviet climbers climbed Everest at once. In the early 1990s, the era of commercial mountaineering began, and its participants did not always have the proper training. Sir Hillary said that "human life was, is and will be higher than the top of a mountain." But not everyone agrees with this. Many believe that one climber should not risk climbing and life because of poor preparation and exaggerated ambitions of another. Climbers going to storm Everest can leave a dying colleague, and few of them will risk their lives to help him. The Japanese group indifferently passed by the perishing Indians. As one of them later stated:
We are too tired to help them. An altitude of 8000 meters is not a place where people allow themselves moral considerations.
They also passed the dying Englishman David Sharpe. Only one Sherpa porter tried to help him and put him on his feet for an hour. In 1992, descending from the summit, Ivan Dusharin and Andrei Volkov saw and rescued a man lying in the snow, abandoned by his companions to die, as it turned out later, the guide of an American commercial expedition. He told them:
- I recognized you, you are Russians, only you can save me, help me!
In the spring of 2006, with excellent weather, 11 more people remained forever on the slopes of Everest. The unconscious Lincoln Hall was brought down by the Sherpas, and he survived, escaping with frostbite on his hands. Anatoly Bukreev at an altitude of 8000 meters saved the lives of three members of his commercial group.
Passing by the dying, climbers are sometimes simply unable to help them. The problem is the physical impossibility of saving them if there is no iron health. At altitudes of 7500-8000 meters, a person is forced to simply fight for his life, and he decides what to do in this case. Sometimes trying to save one can result in the death of several people. And when a climber dies at an altitude of more than 7500 meters, the evacuation of his body is often even more risky than climbing.
"Rainbow" path
On one of the most popular climbing routes here and there, colorful clothes of the dead peek out from under the snow. To date, more than 3,000 people have visited Everest and more than 200 bodies have remained forever on its slopes. Most of them have not been found, but some lie in plain sight. The bodies of dead, frozen or crashed climbers have become a common feature of the landscape on the classic routes to the top. Some points along the way are named after them, and they serve as eerie landmarks when climbing the peak. Climatic conditions - dry air, scorching sun and strong winds - lead to the fact that the bodies are mummified and preserved for decades.
All the conquerors of Everest pass by the corpse of the Indian Tsevang Palchzhor, called the Green Shoes. The body of Francis Arsentiev, nine years after her death, was only slightly lowered down, where it lies, covered with an American flag. In 1979, on the descent from the summit from hypoxia, exhaustion and cold in a sitting position on the southeastern ridge of the mountain at an altitude of 8350 meters, the German Hannelore Schmatz died. When trying to lower it, Yogendra Bahadur Thapa and Ang Dorje fell and died. Later, a strong wind blew her corpse onto the eastern side of the mountain. In the spring of 1996, due to snowstorms, frost and hurricane winds, 15 people died at once. Only in 2010, the Sherpas found the body of Scott Fisher and left it in place, according to the will of the deceased's family. Brazilian Victor Negrete wished in advance to stay at the top in case of death, which happened from hypothermia in 2006. Canadian Frank Siebart climbed without oxygen and died in 2009. In 2011, Irishman John Delairy died just a few meters from the summit. On the last stretch of the thorny path in 2012, on May 19, the German Eberhard Schaf and the Korean Son Won Bin died, and on May 20, the Spaniard Juan José Polo and the Chinese Ha We-nyi. On April 26, 2015, after an earthquake and avalanches, 65 climbers died at once!
Everywhere money
Climbing Everest requires money, and a lot of it. Only permission for an individual ascent costs 25 thousand dollars, 70 thousand - for a group of seven people. It is necessary to pay 12 thousand for garbage collection from the slopes, 5-7 thousand - for the services of a cook, three thousand - for Sherpas for laying a path along the Khumbu icefall. And another five thousand for the services of a personal porter-Sherpa and five thousand for the installation of the camp. Plus payment for the ascent to the base camp with the delivery of cargo and equipment, for food and fuel. And also three thousand each - to the officers of the PRC or Nepal, who monitor the implementation of the lifting rules. All amounts shown are in dollars. On some items of expenditure, a climber can save money by refusing some services. If one paid twice as much to climb as another, does that mean he should have twice the chance of surviving? It turns out that pay matters.
The already mentioned Hall was a member of a rich expedition with a large number of Sherpas, and he was rescued. And Sharpe's fate was decided by the fact that he "paid only to have a cook and a tent in the base camp." Surprisingly, there are enough people who want to climb Everest. For money, the Sherpas inform the ambitious rich literally on their hands to the very top. But real enthusiasts have not yet died out, among them there are women. Unfortunately, the number of mummies - as terrifying landmarks on the "rainbow" path to the summit of Everest - will probably continue to increase.

It is estimated that more than 200 people have died trying to reach the summit of Everest. The reasons for their deaths are as diverse as the weather at the top. Climbers face various hazards - falling off a cliff, falling into a crevice, suffocation due to low oxygen at high altitude, avalanches, rockfalls and weather that can change drastically in a matter of minutes. The winds at the top can reach hurricane force, literally blowing the climber off the mountain. Low oxygen levels make climbers suffocate, while oxygen-deprived brains render them unable to make rational decisions. Some climbers who stop for a short rest fall into a deep sleep, never to wake up again. But ask any climber who has scaled the mountain and reached the 29,000-foot summit, and he will tell you that apart from all these dangers, the most memorable and most disturbing part of the climb was the many perfectly preserved bodies of those people who died on the way to the summit. .

Except for the seven-day transition to the Base Camp and the two-week acclimatization period in it, then the ascent to Everest itself lasts 4 days. Climbers begin their four-day climb to Everest at the Base Camp, located at the foot of the mountain. Climbers leave Base Camp (located at 17,700 feet) that separates Tibet and Nadas and ascend to Camp No. 1 at 20,000 feet. After a night of rest at Camp 1, they then proceed to Camp 2, also known as Advanced Base Camp (ABC). From Advance Base Camp, they ascend to Camp 3, where, at 24,500 feet, oxygen levels are so low that they must wear oxygen masks while they sleep. From Camp #3 climbers #3 try to reach either the South Col or Camp #4. Having reached Camp 4, climbers reach the border of the “death zone” and must decide whether to continue climbing, then they need to stop and rest a little longer, or return back. Those who choose to continue climbing face the most difficult part of the journey. At 26,000 feet, in the "death zone", necrosis begins and their bodies begin to die. During the ascent, climbers are literally in a "death race", they must reach the summit and return before their bodies "switch off" and they die. If they fail, their bodies will become part of the mountain landscape.

Corpses in such a low-temperature environment are perfectly preserved. Considering that a person can literally die in two counts, many of the dead are not recognized as such for some time after death. In an environment where every climber's step is a struggle, rescuing the dead or dying is practically impossible, as is the evacuation of corpses. The bodies become part of the landscape, and many of them become "landmarks", later climbers use them as "markers" during their ascent. There are approximately 200 bodies at the summit of Everest.

Some of them:

David Sharpe's body still sits near the summit of Everest, in a cave known as the "Green Shoes Cave". David climbed in 2006 and near the top he stopped in this cave to rest. Ultimately, he was so cold that he could no longer get out of it.

Sharpe was no stranger to the mountains. At the age of 34, he already climbed the eight-thousander Cho Oyu, passing the most difficult sections without using the railing, which may not be a heroic deed, but at least shows his character. Suddenly left without oxygen, Sharp immediately felt ill and immediately collapsed on the rocks at an altitude of 8500 meters in the middle of the northern ridge. Some of those who preceded him claim that they thought he was resting. Several Sherpas inquired about his condition, asking who he was and with whom he traveled. He replied: "My name is David Sharp, I'm here with Asia Trekking and I just want to sleep."

A group of about forty climbers left the Englishman David Sharp alone to die in the middle of the northern slope; faced with a choice, to help or continue climbing to the top, they chose the second, since reaching the highest peak in the world meant for them to accomplish a feat.

On the very day that David Sharp was dying surrounded by this pretty company and in utter contempt, the media around the world sang the praises of Mark Inglis, the New Zealand guide who, lacking legs to be amputated after an occupational injury, climbed to the top of Everest on prosthetics made of hydrocarbon artificial fiber with cats attached to them.

His body still sits in the cave and is used as a guide for other climbers on their way to the top.

The body of the "Green Shoes" (an Indian climber who died in 1996) is located near the cave, which all climbers pass by climbing the peak. "Green Boots" now serves as a marker that climbers use to determine the distance to the summit. In 1996, the Green Shoes broke away from his group and found this rocky peak (actually a small, open cave) to use as protection from the elements. He sat there, shivering with cold, until he died. The wind has since blown his body out of the cave.

The bodies of those who died at the Advanced Base Camp are also left where they froze to death.

George Malory died in 1924, he was the first to attempt to reach the top of the highest mountain in the world. His corpse, still perfectly preserved, was identified in 1999.

Details: Mallory was the first to conquer the summit and died already on the descent. In 1924, the Mallory-Irving team launched an assault. They were last seen through binoculars in a break in the clouds just 150 meters from the summit. Then the clouds converged and the climbers disappeared.
The mystery of their disappearance, the first Europeans who remained on Sagarmatha, worried many. But it took many years to find out what happened to the climber.
In 1975, one of the conquerors assured that he saw some body off the main path, but did not approach, so as not to lose strength. It took another twenty years for in 1999, when traversing the slope from the 6th high-altitude camp (8290 m) to the west, the expedition stumbled upon many bodies that had died over the past 5-10 years. Mallory was found among them. He was lying on his stomach, sprawled, as if hugging a mountain, his head and hands were frozen into the slope.

Climbers often place rock debris and packed snow around bodies to protect them from the elements. No one knows why this body was skeletonized.

The bodies lie on the mountain, frozen in the position in which death found them. Here a man fell off the path and, not having the strength to get up, died where he fell.

It is assumed that this man died sitting, leaning on a snowdrift, which has since disappeared, leaving the body in this strange elevated position.

Some die when they fall off cliffs, their bodies left in places where they can be seen but not reached. Bodies resting on small ledges often roll down, out of sight of other climbers, only to be later buried under the fallen snow.

American Francis Arsenyeva, who was descending with a group (which included her husband), fell and begged climbers passing by to save her. Descending the steep slope, her husband noticed her absence. Knowing that he did not have enough oxygen to reach her and return to base camp, he nevertheless made the decision to return to find a wife. He broke and died while trying to go down and get to his dying wife. Two other climbers successfully descended to her, but they knew that they could not take her down the mountain. They consoled her for a while before leaving her to die.

Details: Sergei Arsentiev and Francis Distefano-Arsentiev, having spent three nights on 8,200 m (!), climbed and reached the summit on 05/22/1998 at 18:15. The ascent was made without the use of oxygen. Thus, Francis became the first American woman and only the second woman in history to climb without oxygen.
During the descent, the couple lost each other. He went down to the camp. She is not.
The next day, five Uzbek climbers went to the top past Francis - she was still alive. The Uzbeks could help, but for this they refused to climb. Although one of their comrades has already ascended, in this case the expedition is already considered successful.
On the descent we met Sergei. They said they saw Francis. He took oxygen tanks and went. But he disappeared. Probably blown away by a strong wind into a two-kilometer abyss.
The next day there are three other Uzbeks, three Sherpas and two from South Africa - 8 people! They approach her - she has already spent the second cold night, but she is still alive! Again, everyone passes by - to the top.
“My heart sank when I realized that this man in a red and black suit was alive, but completely alone at an altitude of 8.5 km, just 350 meters from the summit,” recalls the British climber. - Katie and I, without thinking, turned off the route and tried to do everything possible to save the dying. Thus ended our expedition, which we had been preparing for years, begging for money from sponsors ... We did not immediately manage to get to it, although it lay close. Moving at such a height is the same as running under water ...
When we found her, we tried to dress the woman, but her muscles atrophied, she looked like a rag doll and muttered all the time: “I am an American. Please, do not leave me"…
We dressed her for two hours. My concentration was lost due to a bone-piercing rattling sound that broke the ominous silence, Woodhall continues his story. - I understood: Katie is about to freeze to death herself. We had to get out of there as soon as possible. I tried to lift Frances and carry her, but it was useless. My futile attempts to save her put Kathy at risk. We couldn't do anything."
Not a day went by that I didn't think about Frances. A year later, in 1999, Katie and I decided to try again to get to the top. We succeeded, but on the way back we were horrified to notice the body of Francis, she was lying exactly as we had left her, perfectly preserved under the influence of low temperatures.

“No one deserves such an end. Kathy and I promised each other to return to Everest again to bury Francis. It took 8 years to prepare a new expedition. I wrapped Francis in an American flag and put a note from my son. We pushed her body into a cliff, away from eyes of other climbers. Now she rests in peace. Finally, I was able to do something for her." - Ian Woodhall.

Unfortunately, even with the use of modern climbing technologies, the list of climbers who died on Everest is growing. In 2012, the following climbers died while attempting to climb Everest: Doa Tenzing (failure due to thin air), Karsang Namgyal (failure), Ramesh Gulve (failure), Namgyal Tshering (fell into a crevice in the glacier), Shah -Klorfine Shriya (failure), Eberhard Schaaf (cerebral edema), Song Won-bin (fall), Ha Wenyi (failure), Juan José Polo Carbayo (failure) and Ralph D. Arnold (broken leg led to weakness ).

In 2013, deaths continued; The following climbers met their tragic end: Mingma Sherp (fell into a crevice in the glacier), DaRita Sherp (failure), Sergey Ponomarev (failure), Lobsang Sherp (fall), Alexei Bolotov (fall), Namgyal Sherpa (cause of death unknown) , Seo Sung-Ho (cause of death unknown), Mohammed Hossain (cause of death unknown), and one unknown person (died on the descent).

In 2014, a group of approximately 50 pre-season climbers were hit by an avalanche at over 20,000 feet (just above base camp at Mount Khumbu Ice Cascade). 16 people died (three of them were never found).

Terrible footage of the Discovery channel in the TV series Everest - Beyond the Limits of the Possible. When the group finds a freezing person, they shoot him on camera, but only are interested in the name, leaving him to die alone in an ice cave:

The question immediately arises, how is it?:

based on the article.