AIBU to be blown away by this? TW - Deaths on Everest.

I read about 'Green Boots' a few years ago and also found it compelling. There are, or have been, many other long-dead but preserved bodies on Everest.

I believe Green Boots was eventually identified as a Sherpa.

The wider situation with Everest is pretty dismal. It is becoming littered with things like empty oxygen tanks. It used to be that climbing Everest was something only attempted by highly experienced climbers after years of building up to it, but now it has become a tourist thing with queues of inexperienced climbers being shepherded by guides, CEO types who want to boast about 'summiting Everest'.

I'm not a climber myself, I'm scared of heights, but I find mountaineering memoirs, films and documentaries really interesting.

There’s a great documentary on YouTube - Business Insider - “Why is climbing Everest so expensive” - talks a lot about the Sherpas and the environmental impact of Everest ascent attempts.

Holy shit that’s horrific.

It seems absolutely crazy to me but more people are “conquering” Mount Everest than ever before.

It’s not always a wonderful view. Visibility isn’t always good, and there’s often an enormous queue to get onto the summit if the weather has been poor, and pressure for you to give way to other climbers coming up behind you. Not to mention exhaustion, cold, exposure, impaired judgement in the death zone, and a shrinking daylight window to descend (which is the most dangerous part).

Why?

Those people chose to do something dangerous. They weren't forced up there at gunpoint. I feel more sorry for the Sherpas who lose their lives trying to earn money for their families by taking privileged idiots up the damn mountain.

I read a book about Everest. 1996 was a terrible season. Many climbers push on to the summit regardless of knowing that they don't have enough oxygen to get back down. A sort of madness grips them. I also agree, climbers are not mindful of the environment.

I thought climbers liked getting to the top to see the wonderful view!! But, it is probably all about endurance and achievement.

Jesus Christ. What would compel you six months pregnant.

(edited because I thought this was about Everest for a moment)

It's a fundamentally selfish act to climb Everest, risking death, leaving loved ones behind or alone to cope with daily life while you train obsessively, spend £££££ on kit and recces etc. That sort of obsessive mindset is only thinking about their own inner challenge, not the contamination of nature and water supplies of people below them.

I read somewhere that K2 is worse if anything. There's bodies they know are there but not where.

Do climbers have a love of nature? I thought it was more they liked to conquer nature.

I’m not sure those who climb Everest are particularly motivated by a love of nature. I mean, it’s an environmentally disastrous thing to do.

Absolutely @6ate9 - one woman took a coffee maker with her when trying to summit?! Lunacy…

I find it awful that people leave so much waste and human excrement on Mount Everest. How do climbers reconcile the love of nature with leaving so much rubbish behind?

I find Everest absolutely compelling. I didn’t know until recently that Rainbow Valley is called thus because of the colours of all the dead climbers jackets you can see 😱

Thought this too!!

Which would be fine if their bodies, oxygen canisters, discarded tents, food containers and frozen human shit weren’t essentially littering the mountain, and contaminating the glaciers that feed the water supplies of thousand people living around the mountain, and who rely on it for their water.

Any exposed face would have frostbite likely, so it wouldn’t look like a normal face, likely blackened/missing nose, that sort of thing. But yes there are many bodies littering Everest, people have to climb past them on their way to summits Past a certain point, you can’t really help people in difficulty either without extreme risk to your own life.

If you want to be haunted further, look up David Sharp. He was passed by numerous people, given precious spare oxygen, but without the ability to move himself he just sat there until he died.

It’s a brutal, unforgiving place.

Into Thin Air is well worth a read.

Everest is incredibly dangerous. So many climbers have died, and are left up there.
Have you seen the photos of them queuing to summit? It's insane.

I ended up in a rabbit hole a few weeks ago watching the documentaries.
Death Zone: Cleaning Mount Everest. is really worth watching to uderstand just how difficult and just how hard people on the mountains work.
Green Boots was moved to a more sheltered place years ago, they are going to try and recover his body.

You're a bit late to the party op! There's loads of dead bodies and crap on Everest. But I very much doubt your conclusion that green boots' face will not have changed is correct.

I still hope the missing camera will be found one day

I was fascinated by the photos of George Mallorys body.
His back looked like white marble.

Woah