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’ve read that climbing Mount Everest causes long lasting or permanent brain changes.

I had a colleague who went on a climbing holiday in the alps - him, a guide and another client. Day 2 the other client fell to his death. Colleague said it put a bit of a dampener on the rest of the expedition 😮

I was reading about this man the other day too OP, he was originally visible from the main trail on the NE side I think but the Chinese moved him from view a few years ago. He’s Indian, Indian authorities are planning a mission to remove his body from the mountain before October 2026.

In the same article it mentioned the woman who also died in 1996 and became known as ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ of Everest, she was also visible from part of the trail. Quite a few other climbers (including her husband) tried to rescue her when she was still just about alive. No one could manage it though. One Scottish man who tried to rescue her at the time arranged an expedition to move her off the trail 10 years later which he did manage so she’s no longer visible.

I also find the disappearance of British climbers Mallory and Irvine in 1924, with no idea whether they summited or not fascinating.

It seems a lot of climbers push on late or in bad weather and then end up dying on the return journey. It’s not something I’d ever be keen to try myself but I can understand the mentality of wanting to climb (although not the people who pay vast sums and have to be dragged up on a short rope). I do think the Nepalese need to restrict the numbers of people getting permits to climb and perhaps charging a lot more money so they can spend some on clearing the lower camps at least of rubbish.

Humans aren't meant to live in thin air.

I read years ago that in the Andes, people will climb just a few hundred metres (I am well aware I typed that rather than climbing it 😀) to harvest or mine, but return every evening to avoid spending too long there. Apparently it thickens the blood.

It’s just seems like such a selfish pursuit. Born of Western arrogance a lot of the time.

That made me laugh!! Climbers know that death happens and they must know the risks. Perhaps that made it easier for your colleague to accept!!

Yes, they like the feeling of conquering/outwitting nature (they the man!) rather than nature itself surely

Oh really? That's so interesting, is it the lack of oxygen?

Yes, it’s the low oxygen levels which affect the brain.

He was complaining that the guide was out of sorts for the rest of the trip! Not surprising really!!

This is the ultimate selfishness, to risk your life doing something you love is one thing but leaving a small child and taking an unborn child with you?

Oh my god.

God it sounds shit up Everest.

No thought for all the poor Nepalese sherpas who have lost their lives facilitating these ego trips, as pointed out by @Ballooney ?

Understandable. Your colleague sounds very self centred!! There must be a strong element of selfishness to climb Mount Everest in the first place.

I went to a talk by Adriana Brownlee in Leeds a couple of months ago and she talked about this. There is literally no option but to leave them if they die if you are in the death zone. The severe Hypoxia makes it impossible to do anything other than support yourself and yiu woukd die if you tried. It's not a call to be made. It can't be done. The air is too thin for helicopter rescue.

There is a substantial amount of “shit” on Mount Everest which is a severe environmental and health crisis. It affects local water supplies.

Yes, my dad was in the Yorkshire Dales cave rescue. There are still 6 people in Mossdale that they couldn't get out in 1967. The system has been permanently closed by a Coroner order and still remains sealed off to where the bodies are.

But they do talk about death differently. By the time Andriana was 25 she had experienced death of close climbing colleagues and one of her business partners. Her partner is a Sherpa and he nearly died helping someone on K2 and she thought she was going to die twice on descents. Those names from the recent tragedy on Broad Peak in Pakistan where 5 died were all her climbing colleagues. It's a completely different mindset at the elite climbing level.

Has anyone mentioned the novel Thin Air by Michelle Paver? It's a ghost story, and covers some of these themes. She's a wonderful writer.

The world is full of mountains. People climbing Everest are just self-absorbed and heedless of the natural consequences of extreme climbing tourism.

That's the question you want to ask????
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

A late friend of ours could not make the end of the climb. Heart palpation or something of that sort.
He was no small bloke but the sherpa carried him on his back to safely.
John paid for the full education of all the sherpas children and university for one of them. It was the least he could do.

Imagine if all the money and time and effort and resources going into UK people climbing this was actually put into local deprived communities in the UK, what a difference that would make

And for other expeditions as well.

I agree, it's all about status and self-glorification.