Cemetery on Everest (not recommended for the impressionable). Creepy footage from Death Mountain: what Everest is turning into. Everest dead zone.

Over the weekend it became known about the death of three climbers on Everest. They died from altitude sickness. It is unknown when the bodies of the victims will be returned to their relatives. Now there are more than 200 corpses at the highest point on Earth. “Futurist” figured out how climbers die and why they are not buried.

When climbers attempt to conquer Everest, they must accept a painful truth: if the mountain takes a life, it will not give up a body. Currently, more than 200 bodies of climbers remain on Everest. The highest peak on Earth, fraught with mystery and challenging daredevils, is now turning into a cemetery. To reach the summit, climbers are forced to step over the bodies of their predecessors.

“The bodies of climbers and Sherpas (representatives of the indigenous Nepalese people who often become guides in the mountains, editor’s note) are hidden in cracks, they are buried under avalanche snow and rest on the drainage area of the slopes - their distorted limbs are bleached by the sun,” writes the BBC Future.

The main landmark for climbers is the “Green Shoes Cave”. In 1995, an Indian climber climbed there to shelter from a snowstorm, but the stone vaults of the cave could not save him, and he froze. Since then, his body has shown the way to other summit conquerors.

The sad statistics continue to grow due to an increase in the number of people wishing to climb to the top. This weekend it became known about the death of three more climbers: Subhash Pavel from India, Erik Ary Arnold from Holland and Maria Strydom from Australia.

Peak Everest has been summited so many times that it's easy to forget how dangerous it is. Many climbers die during storms or fall down while climbing to the top. Statistically, most deaths on Everest are due to avalanches. In 2014, an avalanche buried 16 climbers at a 5.8-kilometer altitude - after which climbing was temporarily banned. 2015 was the only year when Everest became truly inaccessible: not a single daredevil was able to conquer it. Only on May 11 of this year, an expedition of nine people led by Sherpa conquered the highest peak on Earth.

For those who have nevertheless approached their cherished goal and boldly claim that the height of Everest is just an altitude above sea level, the danger lies elsewhere. In high-altitude mountaineering there is a term “lethal zone” or “death zone”. This is an altitude of 8000 meters, where a person can stay for no more than 2-3 days. During this time, a person loses resistance to the effects of altitude and develops altitude sickness. Symptoms of this disease were observed in Pavel, Arnold and Strydom who died this weekend. Mountain sickness is calledoxygen starvation (hypoxia), caused by a decrease in oxygen pressure in the inhaled air. Climbers find it difficult to adapt to dry mountain air and gusts of wind that make breathing difficult. Hypoxia is aggravated by physical fatigue, dehydration and ultraviolet radiation. Staying at high altitude for a long time, the climber becomes lethargic, his coordination is gradually impaired, and speech disorders are observed. The mind and body seem to turn off: at this moment a person can make an ill-considered decision, overestimating his physical capabilities. The climber, stricken by altitude sickness, is in a state of euphoria and actively resists the attempts of his comrades to interrupt the ascent and bring the patient down. He may be unable to act quickly in a dangerous situation.

It is still unknown when the bodies of the three dead climbers will be lowered from the mountain peak. Returning a body to the family of the deceased costs tens of thousands of dollars and requires the efforts of six to eight Sherpas, whose lives are at great risk.

“Even picking up a candy wrapper on a high mountain is very difficult because it is completely frozen and you have to dig around it,” says Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. “A dead body that normally weighs 80kg weighs 150kg under these conditions. In addition, it has to be dug out along with the surrounding ice.”

In addition, some climbers wish that if they die, their bodies remain on Everest - this is a tradition. However, their followers, who have to step over human remains, find this tradition creepy. Sometimes the bodies of the dead are placed in cracks or covered with stones, forming something like a mound. Since 2008, the Nepal Mountaineering Association has been sending expeditions to the peak to dispose of garbage, human waste and deal with burials.

Conquering Everest is no longer a conquest in the truest sense of the word. There are few corners left on Earth that can be conquered. You can climb Everest to scatter the ashes of a loved one to the wind, draw the name of your beloved girl on the ice, and feel omnipotent.

The main thing is to remember the person whose body now shows the way for others. He hardly wanted such a fate for himself.

Do you remember we discussed ?

You probably noticed the information that Everest is, in the full sense of the word, a mountain of death. Storming this height, the climber knows that he has a chance not to return. Death can be caused by lack of oxygen, heart failure, frostbite or injury. Fatal accidents, such as a frozen oxygen cylinder valve, also lead to death. Moreover: the path to the top is so difficult that, as one of the participants in the Russian Himalayan expedition, Alexander Abramov, said, “at an altitude of more than 8,000 meters you cannot afford the luxury of morality. Above 8,000 meters you are completely occupied with yourself, and in such extreme conditions you do not have extra strength to help your comrade.” There will be a video on this topic at the end of the post.

The tragedy that happened on Everest in May 2006 shocked the whole world: 42 climbers passed by the slowly freezing Englishman David Sharp, but no one helped him. One of them were television crews from the Discovery Channel, who tried to interview the dying man and, after photographing him, left him alone...

And now to readers with STRONG NERVES You can see what the cemetery looks like on top of the world.

On Everest, groups of climbers pass by unburied corpses scattered here and there; these are the same climbers, only they were unlucky. Some of them fell and broke their bones, others froze or were simply weak and still froze.

What morality can exist at an altitude of 8000 meters above sea level? Here it’s every man for himself, just to survive.

If you really want to prove to yourself that you are mortal, then you should try to visit Everest.

Most likely, all these people who remained lying there thought that this was not about them. And now they are like a reminder that not everything is in the hands of man.

No one keeps statistics on defectors there, because they climb mainly as savages and in small groups of three to five people. And the price of such an ascent ranges from $25t to $60t. Sometimes they pay extra with their lives if they save on small things. So, about 150 people, and maybe 200, remained there on eternal guard. And many who have been there say that they feel the gaze of a black climber resting on their back, because right on the northern route there are eight openly lying bodies. Among them are two Russians. From the south there are about ten. But climbers are already afraid to deviate from the paved path; they may not get out of there, and no one will try to save them.

Horrible tales circulate among climbers who have been to that peak, because it does not forgive mistakes and human indifference. In 1996, a group of climbers from the Japanese University of Fukuoka climbed Everest. Very close to their route were three climbers from India in distress - exhausted, frozen people asking for help, they survived a high-altitude storm. The Japanese passed by. When the Japanese group descended, there was no one to save; the Indians were frozen.

It is believed that Mallory was the first to reach the summit and died on the descent. In 1924, Mallory and his partner Irving began the climb. They were last seen through binoculars in a break in the clouds just 150 meters from the summit. Then the clouds moved in and the climbers disappeared.

They did not return back, only in 1999, at an altitude of 8290 m, the next conquerors of the peak came across many bodies that had died over the past 5-10 years. Mallory was found among them. He lay on his stomach, as if trying to hug the mountain, his head and arms frozen into the slope.

Irving's partner was never found, although the bandage on Mallory's body suggests that the pair were with each other until the very end. The rope was cut with a knife and, perhaps, Irving could move and, leaving his comrade, died somewhere lower down the slope.

Wind and snow do their job; those places on the body that are not covered by clothing are gnawed down to the bones by the snowy wind, and the older the corpse, the less flesh remains on it. No one is going to evacuate dead climbers, a helicopter cannot rise to such a height, and there are no altruists to carry a carcass of 50 to 100 kilograms. So unburied climbers lie on the slopes.

Well, not all climbers are such selfish people; after all, they save and do not abandon their own in trouble. Only many who died are themselves to blame.

In order to set a personal record for oxygen-free ascent, American Frances Arsentieva, already on the descent, lay exhausted for two days on the southern slope of Everest. Climbers from different countries passed by the frozen but still alive woman. Some offered her oxygen (which she refused at first, not wanting to spoil her record), others poured a few sips of hot tea, there was even a married couple who tried to gather people to drag her to the camp, but they soon left because put their own lives at risk.

The American woman’s husband, Russian climber Sergei Arsentiev, with whom she got lost on the descent, did not wait for her at the camp, and went in search of her, during which he also died.

In the spring of 2006, eleven people died on Everest - nothing new, it would seem, if one of them, Briton David Sharp, was not left in a state of agony by a passing group of about 40 climbers. Sharpe was not a rich man and made the ascent without guides or Sherpas. The drama is that if he had enough money, his salvation would be possible. He would still be alive today.

Every spring, on the slopes of Everest, on both the Nepalese and Tibetan sides, countless tents grow up, in which the same dream is cherished - to climb to the roof of the world. Perhaps due to the colorful variety of tents resembling giant tents, or due to the fact that anomalous phenomena have been occurring on this mountain for some time, the scene has been dubbed the “Circus on Everest.”

Society with wise calm looked at this house of clowns, as a place of entertainment, a little magical, a little absurd, but harmless. Everest has become an arena for circus performances, absurd and funny things happen here: children come hunting for early records, old people make ascents without outside help, eccentric millionaires appear who have not even seen a cat in a photograph, helicopters land on the top... The list is endless and not has nothing to do with mountaineering, but has a lot to do with money, which, if it doesn’t move mountains, then makes them lower. However, in the spring of 2006, the “circus” turned into a theater of horrors, forever erasing the image of innocence that was usually associated with the pilgrimage to the roof of the world.

On the very day that David Sharp died surrounded by this pretty company and in utter contempt, the world's media sang the praises of Mark Inglis, the New Zealand guide who, without legs amputated after a professional injury, climbed to the top of Everest using hydrocarbon prosthetics. artificial fiber with cats attached to them.

David Sharp, who was climbing the mountain on his own as part of a climb organized by Asia Trekking, died when his oxygen tank failed at an altitude of 8,500 metres. This happened on May 16th. Sharpe was no stranger to the mountains. At the age of 34, he had already climbed the eight-thousander Cho Oyu, passing the most difficult sections without the use of fixed ropes, which may not be a heroic act, but at least shows his character. Suddenly left without oxygen, Sharpe immediately felt ill and immediately collapsed on the rocks at an altitude of 8500 meters in the middle of the northern ridge. Some of those who preceded him claim that they thought he was resting. Several Sherpas inquired about his condition, asking who he was and who he was traveling with. He replied: “My name is David Sharp, I’m here with Asia Trekking and I just want to sleep.”

North ridge of Everest.

New Zealander Mark Inglis, a double leg amputee, stepped with his hydrocarbon prosthetics over the body of David Sharp to reach the top; he was one of the few to admit that Sharpe had indeed been left for dead. “At least our expedition was the only one that did something for him: our Sherpas gave him oxygen. About 40 climbers passed by him that day and no one did anything,” he said.

Climbing Everest.

Contrary to popular belief, most people die on Everest during good weather, not when the mountain is covered in clouds. A cloudless sky inspires anyone, regardless of their technical equipment and physical capabilities, but this is where swelling and typical collapses caused by altitude await them. This spring, the roof of the world experienced a period of good weather, lasting for two weeks without wind or clouds, enough to break the record for ascents at this very time of year: 500.

Camp after the storm.

Under worse conditions, many would not have risen and would not have died...

David Sharp was still alive after spending a terrible night at 8,500 meters. During this time he had the phantasmagoric company of "Mr. Yellow Boots", the corpse of an Indian climber, dressed in old yellow plastic Koflach boots, there for years, lying on a ridge in the middle of the road and still in the fetal position.

The grotto where David Sharp died. For ethical reasons, the body is painted white.

Three days after the death of David Sharp, Peace Project director Jamie Mac Guinness and ten of his Sherpas rescued one of his clients who had gone into a tailspin shortly after reaching the summit. It took 36 hours, but he was evacuated from the top on a makeshift stretcher and carried to the base camp. Is it possible or impossible to save a dying person? He, of course, paid a lot, and it saved his life. David Sharp paid only to have a cook and a tent at base camp.

Rescue work on Everest.

A few days later, two members of one expedition from Castile-La Mancha were enough to evacuate one half-dead Canadian named Vince from the North Col (at an altitude of 7,000 meters) under the indifferent gaze of many of those who passed there.

Transportation.

Gulping heavily on oxygen, a little more than two hours later they came across the body of David Sharp, walked around him with disgust and continued on their way to the top. Despite his vision problems, which the altitude would have exacerbated, Weber climbed on his own using a handrail. Everything happened as planned. Lincoln Hall advanced with his two Sherpas, but at this time Weber's eyesight became seriously impaired. 50 meters from the summit, Kikstra decided to finish the climb and headed back with his Sherpa and Weber. Little by little, the group began to descend from the third stage, then from the second... until suddenly Weber, who seemed exhausted and lost coordination, cast a panicked glance at Kikstra and stunned him: “I’m dying.” And he died, falling into his arms in the middle of the ridge. Nobody could revive him.

Moreover, Lincoln Hall, returning from the top, began to feel ill. Warned by radio, Kikstra, still in a state of shock from Weber's death, sent one of his Sherpas to meet Hall, but the latter collapsed at 8,700 meters and, despite the help of the Sherpas who tried to revive him for nine hours, was unable to rise. At seven o'clock they reported that he was dead. The expedition leaders advised the Sherpas, worried about the onset of darkness, to leave Lincoln Hall and save their lives, which they did.

The slopes of Everest.

That same morning, seven hours later, guide Dan Mazur, who was walking with clients along the road to the top, came across Hall, who, surprisingly, was alive. After he was given tea, oxygen and medication, Hall was able to talk on the radio himself to his team at the base. Immediately, all the expeditions located on the northern side agreed among themselves and sent a detachment of ten Sherpas to help him. Together they removed him from the ridge and brought him back to life.

Frostbite.

He got frostbite on his hands - a minimal loss in this situation. The same should have been done with David Sharp, but unlike Hall (one of the most famous Himalayans from Australia, a member of the expedition that opened one of the routes on the north side of Everest in 1984), the Englishman did not have a famous name and a support group .

The Sharp case is not news, no matter how scandalous it may seem. The Dutch expedition left one Indian climber to die on the South Col, leaving him only five meters from his tent, leaving him while he was still whispering something and waving his hand.

A well-known tragedy that shocked many occurred in May 1998. Then a married couple, Sergei Arsentiev and Francis Distefano, died.

During the descent, the couple lost each other. He went down to the camp. She doesn't.

The next day, five Uzbek climbers walked to the top past Frances - she was still alive. The Uzbeks could help, but to do this they would have to give up the climb. Although one of their comrades has already ascended, and in this case the expedition is already considered successful.

On the descent we met Sergei. They said they saw Frances. He took the oxygen cylinders and left. But he disappeared. Probably blown by a strong wind into a two-kilometer abyss.

The next day there are three other Uzbeks, three Sherpas and two from South Africa - 8 people! They approach her - she has already spent the second cold night, but is still alive! Again everyone passes by - to the top.

“My heart sank when I realized that this man in the red and black suit was alive, but completely alone at an altitude of 8.5 km, just 350 meters from the summit,” recalls the British climber. “Katie and I, without thinking, turned off the route and tried to do everything possible to save the dying woman. Thus ended our expedition, which we had been preparing for years, begging money from sponsors... We did not immediately manage to get to it, although it was close. Moving at such a height is the same as running under water...

When we discovered her, we tried to dress the woman, but her muscles atrophied, she looked like a rag doll and kept muttering: “I’m an American.” Please, do not leave me"…

We dressed her for two hours. “My concentration was lost due to the bone-piercing rattling sound that broke the ominous silence,” Woodhall continues his story. “I realized: Katie is about to freeze to death herself.” We had to get out of there as quickly as possible. I tried to pick Frances up and carry her, but it was no use. My futile attempts to save her put Katie at risk. There was nothing we could do."

Not a day went by that I didn't think about Frances. A year later, in 1999, Katie and I decided to try again to reach the top. We succeeded, but on the way back we were horrified to notice Frances' body, lying exactly as we had left her, perfectly preserved by the cold temperatures.

A year later, the body of Sergei Arsenyev was found: “I apologize for the delay with photographs of Sergei. We definitely saw it - I remember the purple puffer suit. He was in a sort of bowing position, lying immediately behind the Jochen Hemmleb (expedition historian - S.K.) “implicit edge” in the Mallory area at approximately 27,150 feet (8,254 m). I think it's him." Jake Norton, member of the 1999 expedition.

But in the same year there was a case when people remained people. On the Ukrainian expedition, the guy spent a cold night almost in the same place as the American woman. His team brought him down to the base camp, and then more than 40 people from other expeditions helped. Got off easy - four fingers were removed.

“In such extreme situations, everyone has the right to decide: to save or not to save a partner... Above 8000 meters you are completely occupied with yourself and it is quite natural that you do not help another, since you have no extra strength.” Miko Imai.

On Everest, the Sherpas act like fine supporting actors in a film made to glorify unpaid actors who silently perform their roles.

Sherpas at work.

But the Sherpas, who provide their services for money, are the main ones in this matter. Without them, there are no fixed ropes, no many climbs, and, of course, no salvation. And in order for them to provide help, they need to be paid money: the Sherpas have been taught to sell themselves for money, and they use the tariff in any circumstances encountered. Just like a poor climber who cannot pay, the Sherpa himself may find himself in dire straits, so for the same reason he is cannon fodder.

The position of the Sherpas is very difficult, since they take upon themselves, first of all, the risk of organizing a “performance” so that even the least qualified can snatch a piece of what they paid for.

Frostbitten Sherpa.

“The corpses on the route are a good example and a reminder to be more careful on the mountain. But every year there are more and more climbers, and according to statistics, the number of corpses will increase every year. What is unacceptable in normal life is considered normal at high altitudes.” Alexander Abramov, Master of Sports of the USSR in mountaineering.

“You can’t continue to make ascents, maneuvering between corpses, and pretend that this is in the order of things.” Alexander Abramov.

“Why are you going to Everest?” asked George Mallory.

“Because he is!”

The mystery of their disappearance, the first Europeans remaining on Sagarmatha, worried many. But it took many years to find out what happened to the climber.

In 1975, one of the conquerors claimed that he saw some body off to the side of the main path, but did not approach so as not to lose strength. It took another twenty years until in 1999, while traversing the slope from high-altitude camp 6 (8290 m) to the west, the expedition came across many bodies that had died over the past 5-10 years. Mallory was found among them. He lay on his stomach, spread out, as if hugging a mountain, his head and arms frozen into the slope.

“They turned it over - the eyes were closed. This means that he did not die suddenly: when they break, many of them remain open. They didn’t let me down - they buried me there.”

Irving was never found, although the bandage on Mallory's body suggests that the couple were with each other until the very end. The rope was cut with a knife and, perhaps, Irving could move and, leaving his comrade, died somewhere lower down the slope.

Scary footage from the Discovery Channel in the series “Everest - Beyond the Possible.” When the group finds a freezing man, they film him, but are only interested in his name, leaving him to die alone in an ice cave:

The question immediately arises, how does this happen:

Francis Astentiev.

Cause of death: hypothermia and/or cerebral edema.
Evacuation of the bodies of dead climbers is very difficult, and often completely impossible, so in most cases their bodies remain on Everest forever. Passing climbers paid tribute to Frances by covering her body with an American flag.

Frances Arsentiev climbed Everest with her husband Sergei in 1998. At some point, they lost sight of each other, and were never able to reunite, dying in different parts of the mountain. Frances died from hypothermia and possible cerebral edema, and Sergei most likely died in a fall.

George Mallory.

Cause of death: head injury due to a fall.
British climber George Mallory may have been the first person to reach the summit of Everest, but we will never know for sure. Mallory and his teammate Andrew Irwin were last seen climbing Everest in 1924. In 1999, legendary climber Conrad Anker discovered Mallory's remains, but they do not answer the question of whether he managed to reach the summit.

Hannelore Schmatz.

In 1979, the first woman died on Everest, German climber Hannelore Schmatz. Her body froze in a half-sitting position, since initially she had a backpack under her back. Once upon a time, all the climbers climbing the southern slope passed by the body of Shmats, which could be seen just above Camp IV, but one day strong winds scattered her remains over the Kangshung Wall.

Unknown climber.

One of several bodies found at high altitudes that remain unidentified.

Tsewang Paljor.

Cause of death: hypothermia.
The corpse of climber Tsewang Paljor, one of the members of the first Indian team to attempt to climb Everest via the northeast route. Paljor died during the descent when a snowstorm began.

Tsewang Paljor's corpse is called "Green Boots" in mountaineering slang. It serves as a landmark for climbers climbing Everest.

David Sharp.

Cause of death: hypothermia and oxygen starvation.
British climber David Sharp stopped to rest near Green Shoes and was unable to continue. Other climbers passed by the slowly freezing, exhausted Sharpe, but were unable to help him without endangering their own lives.

Marko Lihteneker.

Cause of death: hypothermia and oxygen deprivation due to problems with oxygen equipment.
A Slovenian climber died while descending Everest in 2005. His body was found just 48 meters from the summit.

Unknown climber.

The cause of death has not been established.
The body of another climber was found on the slope and has not been identified.

Shriya Shah-Klorfine.

Canadian climber Shriya Shah-Klorfine summited Everest in 2012 but died during the descent. Her body lies 300 meters from the summit, wrapped in a Canadian flag.

Unknown climber.

The cause of death has not been established.

Didn't this remind anyone of ? Well, if we go back from horror to beauty, then look at

And now to readers with STRONG NERVES You can see what the cemetery looks like on top of the world.

What morality can exist at an altitude of 8000 meters above sea level? Here it’s every man for himself, just to survive.

If you really want to prove to yourself that you are mortal, then you should try to visit Everest.

Most likely, all these people who remained lying there thought that this was not about them. And now they are like a reminder that not everything is in the hands of man.

Horrible tales circulate among climbers who have been to that peak, because it does not forgive mistakes and human indifference. In 1996, a group of climbers from the Japanese University of Fukuoka climbed Everest. Very close to their route were three climbers from India in distress - exhausted, frozen people asked for help, they survived a high-altitude storm. The Japanese passed by. When the Japanese group descended, there was no one to save; the Indians were frozen.

Well, not all climbers are such selfish people; after all, they save and do not abandon their own in trouble. Only many who died are themselves to blame.

The American woman’s husband, Russian climber Sergei Arsentiev, with whom she got lost on the descent, did not wait for her at the camp, and went in search of her, during which he also died.

On Everest in the spring of 2006, about forty climbers left Englishman David Sharpe alone to die in the middle of the northern slope; Faced with the choice of providing assistance or continuing to climb to the top, they chose the second, since reaching the highest peak in the world for them meant accomplishing a feat.
On the very day that David Sharp died surrounded by this pretty company and in utter disdain, the world's media sang the praises of Mark Inglis, the New Zealand guide who, without legs amputated after a professional injury, climbed to the top of Everest using hydrocarbon prosthetics. artificial fiber with cats attached to them.

The news, presented by the media as a super-deed, as proof that dreams can change reality, hid tons of garbage and dirt, so Inglis himself began to say: no one helped the British David Sharp in his suffering. The American web page mounteverest.net picked up the news and started pulling the string. At the end of it is a story of human degradation that is difficult to understand, a horror that would have been hidden if not for the media that undertook to investigate what happened.
David Sharp, who was climbing the mountain on his own as part of a climb organized by Asia Trekking, died when his oxygen tank failed at an altitude of 8,500 metres. This happened on May 16th. Sharpe was no stranger to the mountains. At the age of 34, he had already climbed the eight-thousander Cho Oyu, passing the most difficult sections without the use of fixed ropes, which may not be a heroic act, but at least shows his character. Suddenly left without oxygen, Sharpe immediately felt ill and immediately collapsed on the rocks at an altitude of 8500 meters in the middle of the northern ridge. Some of those who preceded him claim that they thought he was resting. Several Sherpas inquired about his condition, asking who he was and who he was traveling with. He replied: “My name is David Sharp, I’m here with Asia Trekking and I just want to sleep.”

North ridge of Everest.

Climbing Everest.

The first person to be alarmed by Sharpe's death was the Brazilian Vitor Negrete, who, in addition, stated that he had been robbed in a high-altitude camp. Vitor was unable to provide any further details, because he died two days later. Negrete reached the summit from the north ridge without the aid of artificial oxygen, but during the descent he began to feel ill and radioed for help from his Sherpa, who helped him reach Camp No. 3. He died in his tent, possibly due to swelling caused by staying at altitude.
Contrary to popular belief, most people die on Everest during good weather, not when the mountain is covered in clouds. A cloudless sky inspires anyone, regardless of their technical equipment and physical capabilities, but this is where swelling and typical collapses caused by altitude await them. This spring, the roof of the world experienced a period of good weather, lasting for two weeks without wind or clouds, enough to break the record for ascents at this very time of year: 500.

Camp after the storm.

Under worse conditions, many would not have risen and would not have died...
David Sharp was still alive after spending a terrible night at 8,500 meters. During this time he had the phantasmagoric company of "Mr. Yellow Boots", the corpse of an Indian climber, dressed in old yellow plastic Koflach boots, there for years, lying on a ridge in the middle of the road and still in the fetal position.

The grotto where David Sharp died. For ethical reasons, the body is painted white.

David Sharp shouldn't have died. It would be enough if the commercial and non-commercial expeditions that went to the summit agreed to save the Englishman. If this did not happen, it was only because there was no money, no equipment, no one at base camp who could offer the Sherpas doing this kind of work a good amount of dollars in exchange for their lives. And, since there was no economic incentive, they resorted to a false elementary expression: “at the height you need to be independent.” If this principle were true, the elders, the blind, people with various amputees, the completely ignorant, the sick and other representatives of the fauna who meet at the foot of the “icon” of the Himalayas would not have stepped on the top of Everest, knowing full well that what cannot Their competence and experience will allow their thick checkbook to do so.
Three days after the death of David Sharp, Peace Project director Jamie Mac Guinness and ten of his Sherpas rescued one of his clients who had gone into a tailspin shortly after reaching the summit. It took 36 hours, but he was evacuated from the top on a makeshift stretcher and carried to the base camp. Is it possible or impossible to save a dying person? He, of course, paid a lot, and it saved his life. David Sharp paid only to have a cook and a tent at base camp.

Rescue work on Everest.

Transportation.

A little later there was one episode that would finally resolve the debate about whether or not it is possible to provide assistance to a dying person on Everest. Guide Harry Kikstra was assigned to lead one group, in which among his clients was Thomas Weber, who had vision problems due to the removal of a brain tumor in the past. On the day of the ascent to the summit of Kikstra, Weber, five Sherpas and a second client, Lincoln Hall, left Camp Three together at night under good climatic conditions.
Gulping heavily on oxygen, a little more than two hours later they came across the body of David Sharp, walked around him with disgust and continued on their way to the top. Despite his vision problems, which the altitude would have exacerbated, Weber climbed on his own using a handrail. Everything happened as planned. Lincoln Hall advanced with his two Sherpas, but at this time Weber's eyesight became seriously impaired. 50 meters from the summit, Kikstra decided to finish the climb and headed back with his Sherpa and Weber. Little by little, the group began to descend from the third stage, then from the second... until suddenly Weber, who seemed exhausted and lost coordination, cast a panicked glance at Kikstra and stunned him: “I’m dying.” And he died, falling into his arms in the middle of the ridge. Nobody could revive him.
Moreover, Lincoln Hall, returning from the top, began to feel ill. Warned by radio, Kikstra, still in a state of shock from Weber's death, sent one of his Sherpas to meet Hall, but the latter collapsed at 8,700 meters and, despite the help of the Sherpas who tried to revive him for nine hours, was unable to rise. At seven o'clock they reported that he was dead. The expedition leaders advised the Sherpas, worried about the onset of darkness, to leave Lincoln Hall and save their lives, which they did.

The slopes of Everest.

Frostbite.
He got frostbite on his hands - a minimal loss in this situation. The same should have been done with David Sharp, but unlike Hall (one of the most famous Himalayans from Australia, a member of the expedition that opened one of the routes on the north side of Everest in 1984), the Englishman did not have a famous name and a support group .

A well-known tragedy that shocked many occurred in May 1998. Then a married couple, Sergei Arsentiev and Francis Distefano, died.

Sergey Arsentiev and Francis Distefano-Arsentiev, having spent three nights at 8,200 m (!), set out to climb and reached the summit on 05/22/1998 at 18:15. The ascent was made without the use of oxygen. Thus, Frances became the first American woman and only the second woman in history to climb without oxygen.
During the descent, the couple lost each other. He went down to the camp. She doesn't.
The next day, five Uzbek climbers walked to the summit past Frances - she was still alive. The Uzbeks could help, but to do this they would have to give up the climb. Although one of their comrades has already ascended, and in this case the expedition is already considered successful.
On the descent we met Sergei. They said they saw Frances. He took the oxygen cylinders and left. But he disappeared. Probably blown by a strong wind into a two-kilometer abyss.
The next day there are three other Uzbeks, three Sherpas and two from South Africa - 8 people! They approach her - she has already spent the second cold night, but is still alive! Again everyone passes by - to the top.
“My heart sank when I realized that this man in the red and black suit was alive, but completely alone at an altitude of 8.5 km, just 350 meters from the summit,” recalls the British climber. “Katie and I, without thinking, turned off the route and tried to do everything possible to save the dying woman. Thus ended our expedition, which we had been preparing for years, begging money from sponsors... We did not immediately manage to get to it, although it was close. Moving at such a height is the same as running under water...
When we discovered her, we tried to dress the woman, but her muscles atrophied, she looked like a rag doll and kept muttering: “I’m an American.” Please, do not leave me"…
We dressed her for two hours. “My concentration was lost due to the bone-piercing rattling sound that broke the ominous silence,” Woodhall continues his story. “I realized that Katie herself was about to freeze to death.” We had to get out of there as quickly as possible. I tried to pick Frances up and carry her, but it was no use. My futile attempts to save her put Katie at risk. There was nothing we could do."
Not a day went by that I didn't think about Frances. A year later, in 1999, Katie and I decided to try again to reach the top. We succeeded, but on the way back we were horrified to notice Frances' body, lying exactly as we had left her, perfectly preserved by the cold temperatures.

No one deserves such an end. Katie and I promised each other that we would return to Everest again to bury Frances. It took 8 years to prepare the new expedition. I wrapped Frances in an American flag and included a note from my son. We pushed her body into the cliff, away from the eyes of other climbers. Now she rests in peace. Finally, I was able to do something for her." Ian Woodhall.
A year later, the body of Sergei Arsenyev was found: “I apologize for the delay with photographs of Sergei. We definitely saw it - I remember the purple puffer suit. He was in a kind of bowing position, lying immediately behind Jochen Hemmleb’s “implicit edge” in the Mallory area at approximately 27,150 feet (8,254 m). I think this is him.” Jake Norton, member of the 1999 expedition.
But in the same year there was a case when people remained people. On the Ukrainian expedition, the guy spent a cold night almost in the same place as the American woman. His team brought him down to the base camp, and then more than 40 people from other expeditions helped. He got off easy - four fingers were removed.
“In such extreme situations, everyone has the right to decide: to save or not to save a partner... Above 8000 meters you are completely occupied with yourself and it is quite natural that you do not help another, since you have no extra strength.” Miko Imai.

On Everest, the Sherpas act like fine supporting actors in a film made to glorify unpaid actors who silently perform their roles.

Sherpas at work.

Frostbitten Sherpa.

“You can’t continue to make ascents, maneuvering between corpses, and pretend that this is in the order of things.” Alexander Abramov.

“Why are you going to Everest?” asked George Mallory.
“Because he is!”

Mallory was the first to reach the summit and died on the descent. In 1924, the Mallory-Irving team launched an assault. They were last seen through binoculars in a break in the clouds just 150 meters from the summit. Then the clouds moved in and the climbers disappeared.
The mystery of their disappearance, the first Europeans remaining on Sagarmatha, worried many. But it took many years to find out what happened to the climber.
In 1975, one of the conquerors claimed that he saw some body off to the side of the main path, but did not approach so as not to lose strength. It took another twenty years until in 1999, while traversing the slope from high-altitude camp 6 (8290 m) to the west, the expedition came across many bodies that had died over the past 5-10 years. Mallory was found among them. He lay on his stomach, spread out, as if hugging a mountain, his head and arms frozen into the slope.

“They turned it over - the eyes were closed. This means that he did not die suddenly: when they break, many of them remain open. They didn’t let me down - they buried me there.”

The question immediately arises, how does this happen:

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Tsewang Paljor, an Indian citizen, died while climbing the world's highest peak, Everest, in 1996. Since then, for more than 20 years, his body has been lying on the northern slope of the mountain at an altitude of 8500 meters. The climber's bright green boots became a reference point for other climbing groups. If you come across “Mr. Green Shoes,” then you are on the right path.

Using a corpse as a signpost? This is cynical. But they haven’t been able to take him out of there for many years, because any attempt to do so would result in a risk to life. A helicopter or plane will also not rise to such a height. Therefore, at the top of the world, the corpses of former colleagues lying along the route are an ordinary thing.

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If it is not possible to lower the bodies down, then they must at least be covered, scientifically speaking, encapsulated so that they rest on the mountain peak as humanly as possible. The initiator of the dangerous ascent into the death zone was the Russian climber, extreme traveler Oleg Savchenko, who told MK all the details of the operation.

perevodika

American Frances Arsenyeva fell and begged passing climbers to save her. While walking down a steep slope, her husband noticed Frances's absence. Knowing that he did not have enough oxygen to reach her, he nevertheless made the decision to return to find his wife. He fell and died while trying to go down and get to his dying wife. Two other climbers successfully descended to her, but they did not know how to help the girl. She ended up dying two days later. The climbers covered it with an American flag as a sign of remembrance.

perevodika

Our operation is called “Everest. 8300. Point of no return." On the northern slope of the peak, on the Tibetan side, we intend to encapsulate 10-15 corpses of climbers who died for various reasons in order to pay tribute to them.

They say that in total there are about 250 corpses on the mountain in different places, and new conquerors of the peak each time pass by dozens of mummies of the dead: Thomas Weber from the United Arab Emirates, the Irishman George Delaney, Marco Litenecker from Slovenia, the Russians Nikolai Shevchenko and Ivan Plotnikov. Someone is frozen into the ice, there are completely naked corpses - maddened by oxygen starvation in the terrible cold, people sometimes begin to frantically throw off their clothes.

Climbers tell the incredible story of Briton David Sharp, who died on the northern slope of Everest in May 2006 at an altitude of more than 8,500 meters. The mountain conqueror's oxygen equipment failed. 40 (!) extreme travelers walked past the dying man; journalists from the Discovery Channel even interviewed the freezing man. But helping David would mean giving up the climb. No one sacrificed their dreams and lives. It turns out that this is normal at this altitude.

You see, it is almost impossible to evacuate bodies from an altitude of more than 8300 meters. The cost of descent can reach fantastic amounts, and even this does not guarantee a positive result, since on the way death can overtake both the person being rescued and the rescuers. Once in South America, where I was climbing the seven-thousander Aconcagua, my partner fell ill with altitude sickness and... began to take off his clothes at -35 degrees, shouting: “I’m hot!” It took me a lot of effort to stop him, and then drag him down without ever reaching the top. When we came down, the rescue rangers reprimanded me that I had done wrong. “Only crazy Russians can do this,” I heard from them. There is a rule in the mountains: if someone leaves the race, you must leave him, if possible, inform the rescuers, and continue on your way, otherwise instead of one corpse there may be two. After all, at best, we could be left without limbs, like one Japanese man who was climbing at about the same time as us and decided to spend the night on the slope before reaching the intermediate camp. But I absolutely do not regret that action, especially since two years later I finally reached that peak. And the guy I saved still calls me every holiday, congratulates me and thanks me.

So this time, having heard from the group’s guide, USSR champion in mountaineering, master of sports Alexander Abramov about the terrible “signposts” on Everest, Savchenko decided to do everything humanely - encapsulate the bodies of the dead. The group, which includes six of the most experienced climbers, including Lyudmila Korobeshko, the only Russian woman to conquer the seven highest peaks in the world, will begin climbing the northern, relatively safer slope on Tuesday, April 18. The journey, according to Savchenko, can take from 40 days to two months.

Despite the fact that each of us is an experienced climber, no one can give a 100% guarantee that everything will go well at altitude. No doctor can predict behavior in such extreme conditions, when the reaction can be unpredictable. The physical characteristics of a real climb are mixed with fatigue, doom, and fear.

To wrap the bodies of the dead, we will use a perpetual non-woven fabric made using the most modern technologies. It can withstand from -80 to +80 degrees, is not destroyed, and is not subject to decay. At least, as the manufacturers assured us, the bodies of climbers will lie in such shrouds for up to 100-200 years. And to prevent the fabric from being torn apart by the wind, we will secure it with a special climbing fastening - ice screws. There will be no name signs. We are not going to organize a cemetery on Everest, we will just cover the bodies from the wind. Maybe someday in the future, when technologies for safer descent from the mountains appear, their descendants will take them away from there.

Everest is the highest point on the planet. Height 8848 meters. Being here for a person is like going into outer space. You can't breathe without an oxygen tank. Temperature - minus 40 degrees and below. After 8300 meters the death zone begins. People die from frostbite, lack of oxygen or pulmonary edema.
The cost of climbing is up to 85 thousand dollars, and the climbing permit alone, issued by the Nepalese government, costs 10 thousand dollars.
Before the first ascent to the summit, which took place in 1953, about 50 expeditions were carried out. Their participants managed to conquer several seven-thousand-meter peaks in these mountainous regions, but not a single attempt to storm the eight-thousand-meter peaks was successful.

Mountains occupy one third of the Earth's land surface. The Himalayas have 11 peaks over eight kilometers high. The highest point on the planet rises 8848 meters above sea level - a peak called Chomolungma in Tibetan, or Sagarmakhta in Nepali, which means “forehead of heaven”.

And the British named it Everest, in honor of the head of the cartographic service, George Everest, who devoted more than 30 years of his life to filming this area of the former British colony.

Conversation with the mountains

On the approach to the famous mountain, on passes five kilometers high, prayer flags are tied to branches folded into a pyramid. People spend hours talking with the mountains, looking at the peaks stretching into infinity. Everest opens from the Dzha-Tsuo-La pass. Qomolangma base camp is located a stone's throw away from Rongbuk Monastery. The famous artist Vasily Vereshchagin, traveling in those places, wrote: “Whoever has not been in such a climate, at such an altitude, cannot form an idea of the blueness of the sky - it is something amazing, incredible...”.

But high mountains are a cruel element, complex and unpredictable, and climbers have no time to admire the beauty of the skies. Each step on a deadly path requires utmost attention and caution. For climbers, climbing Everest is often the achievement of a lifetime and the potential to become... an unusual mummy.

They were the first

The British expedition of 1921 chose the route to storm the summit. General Charles Bruce first proposed the idea of recruiting porters from the Sherpa tribes living in the surrounding area. In May 1922, the British established an assault camp at an altitude of 7600 meters. George Mallory, Edward Norton, Howard Somervell and Henry Morshead climbed to 8000 meters. And George Ingle Finch, Bruce Jr. and Tezhbir made the first attempt at an assault with oxygen cylinders - “English air,” as the Sherpas mockingly called it. The expedition had to be abandoned because seven Sherpas, the first victims of Everest, were killed in an avalanche.

In 1924, during an expedition, the Norton-Somervell pair first went up, but Somervell soon felt ill and returned. Norton rose to 8570 meters without oxygen. A team of Mallory and Irwin launched an assault on June 6. The next day they were seen in a break in the clouds, like two black dots on a snow field at the top. No one saw them alive again.

In 1933, Win-Harris found Irwin's ice ax near the northern ridge. And on May 1, 1999, Konrad Anker saw a shoe sticking out of the snow. It was Mallory's body. According to experts, they could have conquered Everest on June 8, 1924 and died during the descent, falling off the ridge during a snowstorm. A wallet and documents were found in Mallory's pockets, but there was no photograph of his wife and a British flag - he promised to leave them at the top. It remains a mystery whether the researchers climbed Everest?

After a series of unsuccessful expeditions, on May 26, 1953, Henry Hunt and Da Namgyal Sherpa brought a tent and food to an altitude of 8,500 meters. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who climbed a day later, spent the night in it and at nine o’clock in the morning on May 29 climbed to the top of Everest! But the Western media for a long time claimed that the first conqueror was a white man from New Zealand, Sir Hillary, and the native Sherpa Norgay was not even mentioned. Only many years later was justice restored.

"Death Zone" and moral principles

Altitudes above 7,500 meters are called the “death zone.” Due to the lack of oxygen and cold, a person cannot stay there for a long time. And in acute cases of mountain sickness, climbers develop swelling of the brain and lungs, coma and death occur.

In 1982, 11 Soviet climbers climbed Everest. At the beginning of the 1990s, the era of commercial mountaineering began, and its participants did not always have proper training. Sir Hillary said that “human life was, is and will be higher than the top of the mountain.” But not everyone agrees with this. Many believe that one climber should not risk his climb and his life because of the poor preparation and exaggerated ambitions of another.

Climbers heading to Everest might abandon a dying colleague, and few would risk their lives to help him. The Japanese group indifferently walked past the dying Indians. As one of them stated later:

We are too tired to help them. An altitude of 8000 meters is not a place where people will allow themselves moral considerations.

We also passed by the dying Englishman David Sharp. Only one Sherpa porter tried to help him and put him on his feet for an hour. In 1992, while descending from the peak, Ivan Dusharin and Andrei Volkov saw and saved a man lying in the snow, abandoned by his companions to die; as it later turned out, he was the guide of an American commercial expedition. He told them:

I recognized you, you are Russian, only you can save me, help!

In the spring of 2006, with excellent weather, 11 more people remained forever on the slopes of Everest. The unconscious Lincoln Hall was brought down by Sherpas and survived with frostbite on his hands. Anatoly Bukreev saved the lives of three members of his commercial group at an altitude of 8000 meters.

Passing by dying people, climbers are sometimes simply unable to help them. The problem is the physical impossibility of saving them if there is no iron health. At altitudes of 7500-8000 meters, a person is forced to simply fight for his life, and he decides for himself what to do in this case. Sometimes trying to save one can lead to the death of several people. And when a climber dies at an altitude of more than 7,500 meters, evacuating his body is often an even more risky undertaking than climbing.

"Rainbow" way

On one of the most popular climbing routes, here and there, multi-colored clothes of the dead peek out from under the snow. To date, more than 3,000 people have visited Everest and more than 200 bodies remain forever on its slopes. Most of them have not been found, but some are in plain sight. The bodies of dead, frozen or crashed climbers have become an everyday part of the landscape on the classic routes to the summit. Several points along the route are named after them, and they serve as eerie landmarks as you climb the peak. Climatic conditions - dry air, scorching sun and strong winds - lead to the fact that the bodies are mummified and preserved for decades.

All the conquerors of Everest pass by the corpse of the Indian Tsewang Palchor, called Green Shoes. Nine years after her death, Frances Arsentiev's body was only lowered down a little, where it lies, covered with an American flag. In 1979, while descending from the summit, the German woman Hannelore Schmatz died from hypoxia, exhaustion and cold in a sitting position on the southeastern ridge of the mountain at an altitude of 8350 meters. While trying to lower it, Yogendra Bahadur Thapa and Ang Dorje fell and died. Later, a strong wind blew her corpse onto the eastern slope of the mountain.

In the spring of 1996, due to a blizzard, frost and hurricane winds, 15 people died at once. It was only in 2010 that Sherpas found Scott Fisher's body and left it in place, in accordance with the wishes of the deceased's family. Brazilian Victor Negrete wished in advance to remain on top in case of death, which happened from hypothermia in 2006. Canadian Frank Ziebarth climbed without oxygen and died in 2009. In 2011, Irishman John Delairy died literally a few meters from the top. On the last leg of the thorny path in 2012, on May 19, German Eberhard Schaff and Korean Son Won Bin died, and on May 20, Spaniard Juan Jose Polo and Chinese Ha We-nyi died. On April 26, 2015, after an earthquake and avalanches, 65 climbers died at once!

There's money everywhere

Climbing Everest requires money, and a lot of it. Only a permit for an individual climb costs 25 thousand dollars, 70 thousand for a group of seven people. You have to pay 12 thousand for cleaning garbage from the slopes, 5-7 thousand for the services of a cook, three thousand for the Sherpas for laying a path along the Khumbu Icefall. And another five thousand for the services of a personal Sherpa porter and five thousand for setting up a camp. Plus payment for the ascent to the base camp with the delivery of cargo and equipment, for food and fuel. And also three thousand each - to the officers of the People's Republic of China or Nepal, who monitor compliance with the lifting rules. All amounts shown are in dollars.

A climber can save on some expense items by refusing some services. If one paid twice as much to climb as another, does that mean he should have twice the chance of survival? It turns out that payment matters.