# Bodies remain on Mount Everest. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910 "2015-07-22T23:52:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/21 "2015-07-23T06:50:52Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > I think the answer is embarrassing in the kind of obvious way that makes it impolite to mention to many folks, unfortunately. Everyone who hikes past a corpse on Everest has a choice: Is it better to bring this person who lost his/her life further down the mountain so that the corpse has a chance to have some kind of last rites or is it better to ignore that option in order to have a stronger shot at getting to the top. People who climb Everest have answered that question over and over. What’s your biggest personal goal? Imagine spending your life savings on pursuing that goal, then, when you’re just about to realise your life’s ambition, being coerced into some futile diversion out of a sense of duty. Would that be good? What you’re suggesting is pointless at best, and in reality, potentially dangerous and life-threatening. Even an organised mission with the specific goal of recovering all the bodies would itself risk the lives of its participants. The dead bodies on Everest aren’t going to be any better off from being recovered. I am not a climber and I guess I don’t completely understand what drives people to pursue such extreme goals, but if I were, I think I would completely accept that nobody should be under any obligation to recover my remains, if I died there. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/22 "2015-07-23T06:58:08Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Your link gives the cost of a complete climb to the summit. Most of the bodies are well short of that. No they’re not, most of the unrecovered bodies are above base camp IV which is at 8000 meters (26,000 feet). Helicopter operations at this altitude are extremely dangerous. See a list of the camps on the south face here. [http://www.everestnews.com/everestnews/camps.htm](http://www.everestnews.com/everestnews/camps.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/23 "2015-07-23T07:14:29Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > No they’re not, most of the unrecovered bodies are above base camp IV which is at 8000 meters (26,000 feet). Helicopter operations at this altitude are extremely dangerous. That’s what I was thinking about. Unlike with the rescue of injured persons, an operation to recover a corpse could be carefully planned and could take all the time in the world. In particular, one could wait for perfect weather conditions. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/24 "2015-07-23T07:47:51Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > That’s what I was thinking about. Unlike with the rescue of injured persons, an operation to recover a corpse could be carefully planned and could take all the time in the world. In particular, one could wait for perfect weather conditions. Again, who is paying for it? Having a helicopter on standby at base camp waiting for perfect weather conditions is extremely expensive. Where families have wanted bodies recovered and paid people to do so, bodies have occasionally been recovered. Most of the families of the deceased are fine with the bodies staying there. If you think somehow its the job of the Nepalese government to pay for it, then you probably have no idea how poor Nepal is. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/25 "2015-07-23T07:59:34Z")
Keep in mind these bodies are there because the surroundings kill people on a regular basis. Recovering bodies in those same surroundings is obviously dangerous as well - probably more dangerous than regular climbing. Can you ask people to carry a body down a mountainside where people who aren’t carrying a body die? It’s one thing to ask people to risk their lives to save somebody’s life. It’s something else to ask people to risk their lives just to move a dead body from one place to a different place. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/26 "2015-07-23T08:06:44Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Again, who is paying for it? Having a helicopter on standby at base camp waiting for perfect weather conditions is extremely expensive. Where families have wanted bodies recovered and paid people to do so, bodies have occasionally been recovered. > > Most of the families of the deceased are fine with the bodies staying there. If you think somehow its the job of the Nepalese government to pay for it, then you probably have no idea how poor Nepal is. I fully agree and I’m absolutely not suggesting that any government (let alone the Nepali) should be held responsible to undertake such an operation. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/27 "2015-07-23T08:26:01Z")
Consider, for comparison, this case: > [@](#): > > Body will remain in sealed Utah County cave > > SPANISH FORK — The Nutty Putty Cave will serve as the final resting place for John Jones. > > It was a difficult decision as evidenced by the cracking voices and watering eyes of officials who made the announcement Friday, many of whom are still reeling from the devastation of Jones’ death. > > The decision to not retrieve the body and permanently seal the cave near Elberta was made after numerous meetings with state and county officials, caving experts, search and rescue team members and those in Jones’ family. > > Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park, died in the cave late Wednesday after he became stuck in an 18-inch by 10-inch L-shaped “pinch point” in an unnamed area of the cave. A 27-hour rescue involving more than 130 volunteers was mounted within an hour of the 911 call that went out late Tuesday, but Jones ultimately lost consciousness and died. > > “There will be no future efforts to remove the body because of where it’s located and the danger of accessing the area. The risk is too high,” Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. [http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347563/Body-will-remain-in-sealed-Utah-County-cave.html?pg=all](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347563/Body-will-remain-in-sealed-Utah-County-cave.html?pg=all) ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/28 "2015-07-23T08:44:58Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Your link gives the cost of a complete climb to the summit. Most of the bodies are well short of that. What makes you think a rescue operation would cost _less_ than an ascent? The vast majority of the resources involved are to just to get you within striking distance of the peak, and virtually all of the people who died did so during a summit attempt. Summiting usually takes close to a full day, up and back, even on oxygen. The record one-way is something like 8–9 hours and if I remember right that guy climbed with basically no equipment but oxy bottles, which was risky as fuck. Either way, if you’re not back to lower altitudes pretty damn fast, you’re highly likely to become another body on the mountain. Economies of scale don’t work with these kind of logistics. Every single person added to a climbing group requires more resources, all of which must be carried up the mountain on someone’s back. Pack animals are only useful to relatively low ascent areas, and require their own fodder and care materials. I’ve never attempted a high peak ascent, but I’m familiar enough with regular hiking/trekking to know every day/person/goal added means more equipment and more supplies for every complication, which adds to the logistical complexity, expense, and effort involved. You burn calories prodigiously, water practically evaporates out of your pores and, at the higher camps, people have to sleep with oxygen masks. Calculate how much weight you’d need for, say 6000 calories a day, and about double your normal water intake. Just that, forget about the oxygen and other equipment, represents a shitload of stuff if you think about having to carry it 20km at altitude on your back or someone else’s. > [@](#): > > Well, the only serious attempt to land a helicopter on the summit was successful. Operations at lower altitudes could be done with reasonable safety (assuming they wait for good weather, as would naturally be the case here). And every single day you wait for “good” weather is an added expense and a chance for things to go wrong. The highest you could reasonably stay for more than a couple of days is probably the base camp, which is more than high enough to cause altitude sickness. People \* slowly die\* just from remaining at these altitudes for too long. Have fun stockpiling fuel when just keeping a stripped bird flying in those conditions long enough to drop off some relatively light people and equipment and bug the fuck out is hard enough. If there’s a really bad storm, you’ll probably have to send the helicopter back down or risk serious damage or even complete loss. Near hurricane-level winds are not uncommon even at base camp. By the way, in an [interview with the pilot](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0509/whats_new/helicopter_everest.html), in response to the question, "Does this flight improve the prospects for future rescue operations?” he said: > [@](#): > > The thought of rescuing climbers was one of the things that motivated me to do this project. But the forces I encountered were so powerful that to guarantee a safe flight you’d have to design a more powerful copter. So, in other words, the guy who landed on the summit doesn’t think it’s actually possible to do anything useful at that altitude repeatedly and safely without a specialized aircraft. Not impossible, but damn expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/29 "2015-07-23T09:19:59Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Consider, for comparison, this case: > > [http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347563/Body-will-remain-in-sealed-Utah-County-cave.html?pg=all](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347563/Body-will-remain-in-sealed-Utah-County-cave.html?pg=all) Jeez, I wish I hadn’t read that. That’s ultimate nightmare stuff for me. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/30 "2015-07-23T12:01:57Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > I think the answer is embarrassing in the kind of obvious way that makes it impolite to mention to many folks, unfortunately. Everyone who hikes past a corpse on Everest has a choice: Is it better to bring this person who lost his/her life further down the mountain so that the corpse has a chance to have some kind of last rites or is it better to ignore that option in order to have a stronger shot at getting to the top. Never mind getting to the top - schlepping a 180-pound body downhill substantially reduces your chances of making it _down_ alive, even if you never had a summit attempt in mind. Maybe you can drag it a few feet across gentle terrain, but most of the mountainside is not gentle terrain. There are rocky traverses that would make transporting a dead body extremely difficult even if you weren’t already out of breath from the altitude. There are also icy slopes that must be traversed, on which the only reason you don’t slide to your own death is because you have crampons on your boots. You can’t move a dead body “just a little further” in terrain like that; you’d have to move it all the way to the next patch of level ground before you park it again, and you’d likely kill yourself trying. Search-and-rescue teams in other venues make a distinction between “rescue” and “recovery” efforts. A “rescue” mission means they believe people are still alive, and they will take substantial risks to rescue those people in a timely manner. A “recovery” mission means they believe people are not still alive; they are merely trying to pick up bodies/remains, and the level of risk they are willing to accept for this job is much less. On Everest, there have been debates among climbers about whether the risk incurred by helping struggling climbers is too high to justify the effort (see for example the case of [David Sharp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sharp_(mountaineer))) - but among Everest climbers, I don’t think there’s any serious disagreement about whether the risk incurred by attempting to drag a dead body downhill is justified by the goal (it isn’t). ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/31 "2015-07-23T12:41:23Z")
I would think that rescuing the 200 dead bodies may well cause another 200 deaths. It would make matters worse. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/32 "2015-07-23T12:44:41Z")
I think things have been answered pretty well, but IMO the main reason that efforts aren’t made to retrieve bodies on Everest is that the families aren’t interested in it. Climbers understand that it’s not worth the effort to retrieve a body at those altitudes and are at peace with their possible final resting place. Their families usually accept that. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/33 "2015-07-23T12:55:51Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The part that puzzles me is that several articles I have read indicate they aren’t completely sure who some of these stiffs are. Green Boots, one of the more famous ones, isn’t positively ID’d for example. These are people who died fairly recently and who were parts of expeditions that had surviving members. I thought Green Boots was identified as Tsewang Paljor but now I see I am wrong. It is most likely Paljor but some believe it was another climber from his expedition. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/34 "2015-07-23T13:47:58Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Why not use the corpses as a meal station during your ascent? Then you wouldn’t have to carry as much with you. Quoting this so that when this thread is revived in 7 or 8 years, the appropriate zombie comment can be made. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/35 "2015-07-23T14:06:52Z")
I know every extra ounce adds risk, but since they are requiring climbers to pack down trash, maybe they could bring up a canvas sack, a balloon, and a bottle of helium. Then they could just load the remains (a lot of them look to be dried-out and in pieces anyway) into the bag, and attach the balloon and inflate, and let the remains float off the mountain - they’ll eventually come down someplace lower and possibly more accessible. Include some sort of beacon than then everything can be found easier. This could also be used for the trash, and the human excrement - as long as the wind is blowing toward China. What? I am \ serious. What could go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/36 "2015-07-23T14:10:52Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > What? I am \ serious. What could go wrong? You’d need a LOT of helium. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/37 "2015-07-23T14:19:54Z")
Man Everest is one big trash dump-bodies, empty oxygen tanks, human excrement, abandoned tents-what a mess. How about a moratorium for a few years-get the paying climbers to use another mountain for a while-and clean Everest up. Could all of this junk just be dumped into a crevasse? Or would it re-emerge later? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/38 "2015-07-23T14:28:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > What’s the point of bringing them down? > > My cousin’s parents never accepted his death (his father died this year, his mother is still alive; both pretty much entombed themselves in their flat after his death) but then, they’d never accepted his lifestyle either. He was almost 40, his mother still talked about him as “my baby” (he was the eldest of four, but the other three always got treated as spares for the golden boy). They wouldn’t have accepted it any better if they’d had the corpse to bury. For the rest of the family, it’s a case of “he died as he lived, his tomb is in the place that was his Home” - there was no reason to go through the risk and expense to bring him from his Home to ours just so we could bury the remains. Let him rest where he lived. Wait, are you saying your cousin died on Everest, or that he died somewhere and his body was never found? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/39 "2015-07-23T14:30:24Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Man Everest is one big trash dump-bodies, empty oxygen tanks, human excrement, abandoned tents-what a mess. How about a moratorium for a few years-get the paying climbers to use another mountain for a while-and clean Everest up. Could all of this junk just be dumped into a crevasse? Or would it re-emerge later? Tourism accounts for 4% of Nepal’s GNP with Everest being a large part of that. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910/40 "2015-07-23T14:44:16Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Man Everest is one big trash dump-bodies, empty oxygen tanks, human excrement, abandoned tents-what a mess. How about a moratorium for a few years-get the paying climbers to use another mountain for a while-and clean Everest up. Could all of this junk just be dumped into a crevasse? Or would it re-emerge later? That’s why climbers are required to bring trash down now. If they didn’t climb the mountain, who would be cleaning it up? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bodies-remain-on-mount-everest-why/725910.md?page=3)