# Can you believe this guy is still alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 9, 2000, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289 "2000-10-09T17:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@andyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andyman)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289/1 "2000-10-09T17:52:04Z")
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001007/od/everest\_skier\_dc\_1.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001007/od/everest_skier_dc_1.html) I wonder how long it took to get down? ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289/2 "2000-10-09T17:58:02Z")
Wow…I’m really surprised. I thought we were going to be able to watch him die via satellite feed… (not that I wanted to.) I can’t say that I’m shocked that he ran across a dead body. IIRC, everyone that dies on everest (at least past a certain elevation) stays there. It’s not practical to take people back down, and it serves as a warning for the other climbers. Good for him… hope noone tries to follow and gets killed. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289/3 "2000-10-09T18:03:24Z")
According to Paul Harvey news, it took him five hours to ski down Mt. Everest. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289/4 "2000-10-09T18:35:28Z")
Andygirl, ``` What's surprising is the lack of decay. There was a documentary last year that showed the body of Mallory and while it was dried out, it was not all that rotted - you could show it on TV, and he's dead 75 years...his partner was never found. In * Into Thin Air * the author writes of an later expedition asked to bring back keepsakes from bodies (a ring to a climber's widow, etc) but the bodies were left. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289/5 "2000-10-09T18:42:10Z")
**andygirl** : > [@](#): > > IIRC, everyone that dies on everest (at least past a certain elevation) stays there. It’s not practical to take people back down, and it serves as a warning for the other climbers. I’ve heard that too. You’d think a climber’s courtesy would evolve, such that, whenever anyone finds a body on Everest, they tug it ten yards or a hundred downslope, whatever they feel able to do without hindering their main purpose. As many people as climb Everest these days, in a few years all the corpses would be recovered and buried. ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-believe-this-guy-is-still-alive/36289/6 "2000-10-09T22:11:23Z")
IIRC it’s a respectful gesture that the bodies are left. They leave them doing what they wanted most to do, or something. –Tim