Extinction bursts: 2013

The body of David Sharp still sits in a cave, known as “Green Boots Cave”, at the top of Mount Everest. David attempted the climb in 2005 and near the top, stopped in this cave to rest. His body eventually froze in place rendering him unable to move. Over 30 climbers passed by him as he sat freezing to death. Some heard faint moans and realized he was still alive. They stopped and spoke with him. He was able to identify himself but was unable to move. Brave climbers moved him into the Sun in an attempt to thaw him but eventually, realizing David would be unable to move, were forced to leave him to die. His body still sits in the cave and is used as a guide point for other climbers nearing the summit.

The body of “Green Boots” (an Indian climber who died in 1996) lies near a cave that all climbers pass on their way to the peak. Green Boots now serves as a waypoint marker that climbers use to gauge how near they are to the summit. Green Boots became separated from his party in 1996 and sought this mountain overhang (really a small, open mouthed cave) to use as protection from the elements. He sat there shivering in the cold until he died. The wind has since blown his body over.

Bodies of those who died at Advanced Base Camp are also left lying where they succumbed to the cold.

George Mallory died in 1924 and was the first to make an attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain. His body, still perfectly preserved, was identified in 1999.

Climbers often stack rocks and packed snow around the bodies in an effort to protect them from the elements. Nobody knows why this body skeletonized.

Bodies lie on the mountain frozen in the position they were in when the person died. Here a man had fallen off the trail and too tired to rise, died where he fell.

Some die from falls leaving their bodies in a location where they can be seen but not recovered. Bodies that are located on small ledges are often rolled off to hide them from view of other climbers only to be buried by falling snow.

Francys Arseniev, an American women who fell while descending with a group (that included her husband), pleaded with passerby’s to save her. While climbing down the side of a steep section of the mountain, her husband noticed she was missing. Knowing that he did not have enough oxygen to reach her and return to base camp, he chose to turn back to find his wife anyway. He fell to his death in the attempt to climb down and reach his dying wife. Two other climbers did successfully reach her but knew carrying her off of Mount Everest was not an option. They comforted her for a while before leaving her to die. Feeling great remorse, they returned eight years later vowing to find the body and enshrine it in an American flag (they succeeded). After details of the disastrous climb became known, it was realized that Francys Arseniev had become the first woman from the United States to reach the summit of Mount Everest without the aid of bottled oxygen.