Everest: Their job? Descend the frozen bodies of mountaineers

Published today at 9:31 a.m.

Among those who climbed the highest peak in the Himalayas this year was a team whose goal was not to reach the 8,849-meter summit, but to descend the forgotten remains.

At the risk of her life, she has already recovered five frozen bodies, including one in the state of a skeleton, then brought back to Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital. Two were pre-identified pending “detailed testing” to confirm their identities, according to Rakesh Gurung of Nepal’s tourism ministry. Those who cannot be cremated will probably be cremated.

This Nepalese campaign to clean up Everest and neighboring peaks Lhotse and Nuptse is gruesome, difficult and dangerous. “Because of the effects of global warming, bodies and waste are becoming more and more visible as the snow cover decreases,” Aditya Karki, a major in the Nepalese army at the head of a team of 12 soldiers and 18 mountaineers.

More than 300 people died on the summit since expeditions began in the 1920s, including eight in the last season alone.

Many bodies remained behind, some hidden by snow or in deep crevasses. Others, still clad in their colorful climbing gear, have become landmarks to the summit for climbers, bearing nicknames like “Green Boots” or “Sleeping Beauty.”

“There is a psychological effect,” explains Major Aditya Karki. “People believe they are entering divine territory when they climb mountains, but if they see dead bodies along the way, it can have a negative effect.”

Many bodies are in the “death zone,” where low oxygen levels increase the risk of acute mountain sickness and eventually become fatal beyond a certain duration.

It took 11 hours to free one of the corpses stuck in ice up to the torso, and to use hot water to free it and extract it with an axe. “It’s extremely difficult,” insists Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa, who led the body recovery expedition. “Taking the body out is one thing, taking it down is another.”

According to the guide, some bodies are still almost as they were at the time of their death, dressed in full gear, with crampons and harnesses. One of them, intact, just lost a glove.

Lourdes charges

Recovering bodies from high altitudes remains a controversial topic in the mountaineering community, an undertaking that costs thousands of dollars and requires up to eight rescuers for each body.

At high altitude, it is difficult to carry heavy loads, but a corpse can weigh more than 100 kilos. For Aditya Karki, however, this effort is necessary. “We need to bring them back as much as possible,” he says. “If we continue to leave them behind, our mountains will turn into cemeteries.” During missions, bodies are often wrapped in a bag and then taken down by sled.

A body found near the summit of Lhotse, the fourth highest in the world at 8,516 meters, was one of the most difficult to descend, testifies Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa. “The body was frozen, the hands and legs spread.” “We had to carry him as is to Camp 3, and only then could he be transferred to a sled.”

Many secrets

However, the Himalayas still keep many secrets. If the body of George Mallory, a British mountaineer who disappeared in 1924, was finally found in 1999, that of his climbing companion, Andrew Irvine, was never located. Nor could their camera, which could provide proof of a successful ascent that could potentially rewrite mountaineering history.

The overall clean-up campaign, with a budget of more than $600,000, mobilized 171 Nepalese guides and porters to bring back 11 tonnes of waste.

Fluorescent tents, disused climbing equipment, empty gas cylinders and even human excrement litter the road to the summit.

“The mountains have given us so many opportunities,” observes Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa, “we have to give it back to them, we have to remove the waste and the bodies.”

Now, shipments are forced to dispose of the waste they produce. “This year’s trash should be brought back by the mountain people,” emphasizes Mr. Karki. “But who will bring back the old waste?”

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