The climbing season on Mt. Everest is coming to a close. Late spring is a time in the Himalayas where a relatively calm weather window allows teams to scale the world’s tallest peak. And there have been big moments this season—the first time the mountain has been open to climbing in three years due to natural disasters that shut down access. An ex-Marine became the first combat amputee to scale the peak and a Ketchum, Idaho woman became the first American woman to scale the mountain without oxygen.
But four people have died this season alone. And some 300 in the last century since climbers first started attempting the summit. So what happens when people pass away on the tallest mountain in the world? Often times, the bodies of climbers are left there because it’s simply too tough to get them off the mountain. They’ll be covered in rocks or pushed into a crevasse so they aren’t gawked at each time another team passes by. Some even garner grim nicknames to mark where they lay on the mountain.
According to some reports, to get a climber who’s perished of the South Col., the last camp before attempting the summit on the Nepalese side, it can take 10 Sherpas more than three days to get the body down to where a helicopter can make a pickup. An extremely intense effort traversing crevasses and icy, perilous inclines that takes up precious time and resources. That’s why many teams will make the decision to leave bodies after speaking to families of the deceased.
“It’s extremely difficult and extremely dangerous,” said Arnold Coster about retrieving lost climbers. Coster is an expedition leader for Seven Summit Treks, a company that recently lost two climbers—Dutchman Eric Arnold to an apparent heart attack, and Australian Maria Strydom who succumbed to altitude sickness. Sherpas worked gallantly to retrieve both of their bodies at the request of the families. “The terrain is steep, and the weather is bad. It’s been snowing, and been very windy the past couple days.”
Of the 300 people who’ve died on Everest in said time frame, somewhere between 100-200 of them remain atop the mountain. And some are still visible to every climber that passes.
Recovering bodies is extremely expensive, too, according to Dan Richards of the Boston-based firm Global Rescue, a company that provides rescue insurance that includes emergency helicopter transport. Recovering bodies, he said, can cost anywhere from $10,000-40,000. Climbing Everest is an extremely pricey endeavor and perishing on the mountain only adds to the cost, most of which is passed on to families of deceased mountaineers.
