Climbers On Mount Everest Use More Than 200 Dead Bodies As Landmarks

Head up past the dead guy in the green boots, take a left at the corpse of George Mallory, who’s been there since 1924, and go straight past the body of a dead woman draped with a Canadian flag.

That’s how climbers on Mount Everest might be told to ascend the world’s highest peak.

With the fall climbing season just getting underway, we came across this fascinating story about what happens when climbers die on the 29,029-foot mountain in the Himalayas. “Many climbers have said that the hardest part is neither the dangerous and strenuous ascent nor descent, but is actually the fact that they will be passing nearly 200 dead bodies frozen on the mountain,” wrote Atchuup.com.

Getting a body off Everest is next to impossible. Moreover, doing so would jeopardize the life of those retrieving the body, and because the peak is almost always below freezing, the bodies are just left in place.

Still, people are dying (ahem) to climb the peak and pay upwards of $60,000 for the privilege. But if you’re going to go, here are a few of the bodies you might pass, courtesy of Caveman Circus and Atchuup.

This body is known as “Green Boots.” He died in 1996, getting trapped in a blizzard while descending.

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This is the body of George Mallory, one of the first to climb Mt. Everest in 1924. His body was found in 1999.

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“This is Hannelore Schmatz, a German climber who died from exposure and exhaustion in 1979. It is believed she stopped to rest and leaned up against her backpack, leaving the body propped in this unusual way,” Atchuup wrote.

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“This is the body of Shriya Shah–Klorfine. Shriya, who reached the summit in 2012, ran out of oxygen and died from exhaustion because she spent 25 minutes celebrating her victory before beginning her descent. Her body is 300m below the summit, draped in a Canadian flag,” Atchuup.com wrote.

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