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

[Chefpig]

I have read a news article about the person who died on Everest 30 years ago, known as Green Boots and wondered if his body would have been preserved by the snow and icy conditions up there. After some reading, I believe his body would not have decomposed and so his face will be the same, still in his late 40's. Forever young.

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 😱

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?

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

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.

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

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

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.

Jesus Christ. What would compel you six months pregnant.

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

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

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.

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.

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).

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

Holy shit that’s horrific.

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.

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.

Money is being raised to bring Green Boots home.
He has been named if you Google.

And those Sherpas agreed to it do it

They do it for economic survival.

After reading “into Thin Air” I have zero respect for the majority of people who climb Everest (not including Sherpa). Bunch of self-centred, narcissistic entitled fuckers with more money than sense. Take up golf instead FFS

Yes they chose high risk jobs because of the financial rewards. Just like people all over the world.

There are other jobs available in Nepal you know. They chose to do it because it pays better than those and allows them to provide well for their families.

If it was made illegal to climb Mount Everest (never going to happen as it generates so much money) they would have to find other work. But it’s obviously their choice to be a Sherpa.

Yes i remember watching this. Unfortunately he wasn't able to recover his brother Michael's body but was able to return a Sherpa's body to his family.

My son was really into Mt Everest for a while and we read a lot about the deaths on there. I came across this article about one of the bodies left up there, which explains pretty well how hard it is to rescue someone from the mountain;

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/feb/15/features11.g2