Wow , they say you learn something new every day !!!!

I'm referring to Mount Everest ...
It's all pictured as glam & cool , but the reality is 250 people have lost there lives on the mountain . The part in struggling to grasp is after some harrowing reading that most of the body's are still on the mountain ..
Not only that , but some are used as " markers " to guide the way ...

2 such stories hit me
Firstly the guy they refer to as " green boots"
He stopped for a rest in a little cave around 8000meters . So he's in the ( dead zone ) with little oxygen .. He still lies were he fell with his bright green boots pointing the way

& the story of man & wife team fran arsentiev & husband .
She lay on the slope 800ft from the summit for 9 years , her & husbands death 1998, until 2 guys finally moved her out of view ... Her story & last minutes of life sent a shiver through me .
There are countless others on the mountain & all tell a story ..
What can I say
My eyes are opened

 

yes, I was a bit obsessed with Mount Everest a few years ago

I read the book that the new film Everest is based on

"Into Thin Air" - brilliant book

there is a great IMAX film too, that was taken on that famous 1996 expedition

and you can google "green boots" there is a YouTube footage of him sitting in his cage

 

I noted that on a TV show; not far from the base camp a guide fell down a crevice bouncing off jagged edges on his way down...the blood stains are still there.

These trips to base camp seem to getting more and more fashionable, and I'm wondering "why??" go up a big hill to freeze off your nadgers and starve yourself of air. No ta.

I was the same when I visited Ayres Rock; I was like "Its a big orange rock in the middle of a desert, why would I want to climb it?".....not that I'm lazy or risk adverse...I took a helicopter for a razz about instead

 

Think about it though, its just too dangerous to try to bring a dead body back down again.

You should watch the Everest movie

 

Yes I have seen the pictures , just didn't want to post on here ..
It was more the story about francys that disturbed me ,, I don't know if it's just because she was a lady , or the fact she was alive & begged for help , or the fact she was just left there that got me

 

Everest has become abit of a health hazard area, due to all the dead bodies and crapping that goes uncollected

 

the problem with Everest is that it is so unforgiving

if you get into trouble in the "death zone" - you may as well be on the moon

I believe most people actually die descending the summit after reaching the top

the rule is that it you can't summit by 1.30 / 2.00pm you simply have to turn back

even if you are 50 mtrs away

and it is all compounded by the fact that the lack of oxygen negatively affects your decision making processes

 

Yea that's all true from what I've read ..
Also the conscious decision that your self preservation & whereabouts ie surrounding's are concerning however intrigued the mind may be to " go look " at a body or try help a dying soul ... I'm truly shocked by some stories I've read in the last 24 hrs

 

from memory (I read the book a while ago)

the Russian guide in the 1996 expedition, did go back up the mountain (from camp 4 - which is already at 26,000 feet) and rescue some of Bob Hall's climbers

but yes, brutal - and up until a few years ago I think at least one climber was simply hanging from the ropes at the Hilary Step - 250mtrs from the summit

climbers would simply climb past him

 

 

Watch "Touching The Void", not about Everest (the Andes) but some of the issues being discussed are included in the true story account of human endeavour.

 

Most are idiots with too much money and spare time on their hands! Sad that someone would risk their life to climb to the top of a mountain that has been done many time before!

 

Many do it because as humans we strive to achieve goals.

Not all are spoilt brats with money but genuine enthusiasts with a passion for adventure. It brings money to an impoverished region and I doubt that the earthquake in Nepal would have received as much coverage if western people had not been there.

Bloody kill joy you are

 

The guy known as "green boots" was removed about two years ago. It appears that a Chinese climbing team removed quite a lot of the bodies.

 

I read the bodies don't get moved because the families haven't given the ok.

 

Green boots perished in 1996 - 2013 , long stay on the mountain that ,, I'm pretty sure he's still there from what I've read , I know he moved ( or was moved at some point , either by the wind or another climber . He is above the 8000 mark so would be very difficult to survive having a ( dead weight ) excuse the pun , in toe

 

Facing Up by Bear Grylls is a very honest account of his successful attempt to summit Everest.

Bodies, waste and rubbish up there is becoming a major problem as it is all left up there, whole camps in some cases.

Its strange that now that it has been done by a fair few people that it still holds such a desire for people to explore, when there is vast parts of the ocean / jungle that still have not

 

the guy, Dave sitting in the hole next to Green boots, caused a bit of a stir at the time because he was alive when quite a few people walked past him

they walked past him on the way up as well as on the way down

an English guy, I think he was climbing alone

 

Not to mention a great many mountains, that are equally if not more technically challenging to climb, but without the same poor survival odds of an attempt on Everest.

 

Isn't K2 more difficult to climb than Everest? I beleive it's never been climbed in the winter too.

 

K2 is massively more difficult and dangerous than Everest. Only a few hundred have ever summitted, never in winter, and for every 100 attempts there's something like 30 deaths, poor odds and bordering on suicidal.

 

"The body of “Green Boots,” an Indian climber who died in 1996 and is believed to be Tsewang Paljor, lies near a cave that all climbers must 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."

 

Lol, Sure

But I am talking about Dave Sharp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sharp_(mountaineer)

 

oh

 

Yep, but like pretty much all 8000 metre plus peaks, it shares three or four of the same things that make Everest far less about actual climbing than expedition planning and endurance of a completely different kind - the extremely low temperatures (minus 25 or worse is the norm at that altitude), the lack of oxygen, the fact attempts on the summit very often have to be started in the middle of the night in pitch darkness (), and in large part as a result of the first three, the fact that ascenders are forced to limit the amount of supplies they take with them for the final two or three stages of the climb to the absolute minimum (most of the time you'll be going almost completely without food for the last day or two of the climb, plus the first day climbing back down). None of that really has much to do with climbing technique IMO, but purists might disagree.

 

np

documentary on the whole event

 

Good watch that hodgy cheers

 

Watched the movie last night pal , which I thought was excellent ....just finished watching that now , thanks for posting it

 

This makes it all the more remarkable that Italian climber, Reinhold Messner, ascended Everest alone and without oxygen. He was also the first man to ascend all the 8,000 metre peaks, some achievement.

 

Russel Bryce's Himex crew removed Sharp's body from the cave and interred him off the trail at the request of Sharp's family and the "green boots" guy has not been in the cave since 2014.