Thursday, February 10, 2011

Mt. Everest’s "Death Zone"

The Open Graveyard of
Mt. Everest’s "Death Zone"

A word of warning: The images in the accompanying video are quite graphic.
  For decades, this rope had taken climbers within a few feet of what became known as Green Boots cave. A small limestone overhang located at 8500 m, it was already infamous among climbers for the same reason it earned its nickname. For the past ten years, the body of a climber who died in 1996 has been a grim landmark for every climber of the Northeast route, lying curled up in the fetal position, wearing fluorescent green mountaineering boots.

Everest’s Death Zone
This morning, however, Green Boots had company. Sitting no more than two feet to the left of the corpse was a man who at first glance appeared to be dead. His gloved hands were on his knees, his hood and hat cast his face in shadow. The only feature visible was the man's severely frostbitten nose, already a greenish black hue. On closer inspection, the vapor from the man's breath could be seen rising.
What happened next entered the folklore of the highest mountain on earth.
[Open Graveyard cont]
I'm not a rock climber, but nevertheless took away some useful information.  You'll note that all the corpses are still in possession of their expensive kit, which means there are no Mexican illegals climbing Mt. Everest.

cuzzin "goodbye-how are you"  ricky

10 comments:

leelu said...

I read the whole article. I think the comment thread was even more interesting. Speaking as a) a trained first responder, and b) not a climber, I dout it would make sense to try an effect rescue.

leelu said...

...article is here: http://godheadv.blogspot.com/2010/04/abandoned-on-everest.html

Juice said...

Rodger~
How refreshing from what current political postings do to my stomach and brain. Great story and some informative comments.

IMHO, some people are born to be consumed by challenge, as if in their DNA. They are often the achievers of greatness the rest of us benefit from. Climbing mountains is no different.
'Believe I could trust an Everest climber over a politician on any given day.

Anonymous said...

same thing to a lesser extent on Danali as well.

Arch said...

It would be a nice challenge for modern robotics to send unmanned machines up there. Early missions could be used for recon and maybe collecting some oxygen canisters. Later they can try body recovery.

Either the robots can operate alone during the non-climbing months, or they can accompany an expedition. The robots could carry supplies up, and the climbers can help with some of the more complicated/delicate tasks.

The solo missions are more intriguing, though. It could help develop technology for exploring rugged off-planet locations. The DOD's been working on robot mules and similar multi-legged walkers. That, with arms, cameras, a satellite uplink to a control station, and storage.

Besides litter and corpses, there are historic artifacts up there. Antique gear, clues as to why expeditions failed and people died... it's a National Geographic special that practically writes itself. All we need are the robots.

Anonymous said...

Rainbow Valley eh? This is a challenge but, at what cost do we undertake it? The people that go up there KNOW what the risk is and they must accept that fact. You go up there you can die easily - make one mistake and you are a mass of frozen mummy. There will be many more who die on that mountain (and others) of course so should we remove the bodies? I cannot risk one life to do so - so no, we leave them where they froze.

Bolivar

Anonymous said...

No Arch, robots won't do... Sharks... with lasers.

Casca

Juice said...

Enter: A moment of levity, Casca. :D

Kristophr said...

Two Sherpas died trying go one body out.

Nope, they stay in place.

DougM said...

Ten thousand years from now, some archaeologists will find them, and they'll be famous like the Ice Man in the Alps.

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