# How many bodies are on Everest? And will they ever decay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582 "2015-05-08T22:04:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/21 "2015-05-12T01:02:24Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > If a body can be found by just “walking up to it”, I’m pretty sure it can be removed. Not necessarily. If a body is at sufficiently high altitude, “just walking up to it” may be possible, but extremely difficult. When just putting one foot in front of the other requires concentrated effort; moving a 100kg dead weight is not really feasible. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/22 "2015-05-12T03:28:37Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Not necessarily. If a body is at sufficiently high altitude, “just walking up to it” may be possible, but extremely difficult. When just putting one foot in front of the other requires concentrated effort; moving a 100kg dead weight is not really feasible. I was referring to the story about finding a body somewhere in the contiguous 48 states, not the Himalayas. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/23 "2015-05-12T13:50:59Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > I was referring to the story about finding a body somewhere in the contiguous 48 states, not the Himalayas. There was [a plane crash on Mount Rainier](http://www.sarinfo.bc.ca/RainierGodsMonument.htm) in 1946. Authorities knew the locations of the wreckage and (most of) the bodies, but did not recover those bodies: > [@Ghosts of Rainier](#): > > Park rangers and Navy officers surveyed the scene and reported recovery impossible without loss of life. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/24 "2015-05-12T13:59:26Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Not necessarily. If a body is at sufficiently high altitude, “just walking up to it” may be possible, but extremely difficult. When just putting one foot in front of the other requires concentrated effort; moving a 100kg dead weight is not really feasible. That’s why if you falter high on an Everest summit push, like above Camp IV on the South Col route, you might as well be on the moon. There won’t be any cavalry coming to save you. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/25 "2015-05-12T14:28:07Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > There was [a plane crash on Mount Rainier](http://www.sarinfo.bc.ca/RainierGodsMonument.htm) in 1946. Authorities knew the locations of the wreckage and (most of) the bodies, but did not recover those bodies: 32 Marines died on Mount Rainier that day. > [@](#): > > In spite of a Marine mantra – Marines never leave their wounded or dead behind – they recommended leaving the men on the mountain. ETA: > [@](#): > > Evacuation of all bodies, they said, would be impossible. Removing even a few would cause more deaths and could be delayed indefinitely because of fog and snow. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/26 "2015-05-12T16:58:51Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Paging D. B. Cooper… Mr. Draper’s not in the office right now. May I take a message? (Cooper almost certainly went into the Columbia River and drowned.) ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/27 "2015-05-12T17:09:06Z")
So if I went to Mount Rainier right now could I find the crash site and bodies? ---
**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:** [May 12, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/28 "2015-05-12T17:21:19Z")
> [@pool](#): > > So if I went to Mount Rainier right now could I find the crash site and bodies? Not likely at this time. As the article noted, the crash debris and bodies would have become entombed within the glacier in the months/years after the crash as more and more snow fell on them and became compacted into glacial ice. But the glacier has been moving downhill since then, with the toe of the glacier melting away as more snow falls on it up at the top end. So one of these days the crash debris is expected to emerge at the bottom end of the glacier. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/29 "2015-05-12T17:53:58Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Not likely at this time. As the article noted, the crash debris and bodies would have become entombed within the glacier in the months/years after the crash as more and more snow fell on them and became compacted into glacial ice. But the glacier has been moving downhill since then, with the toe of the glacier melting away as more snow falls on it up at the top end. So one of these days the crash debris is expected to emerge at the bottom end of the glacier. Spoilered for exceptional bad taste. [“Marines… _FALL OUT!_”] ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/30 "2015-05-12T18:03:00Z")
I laughed. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/31 "2015-05-13T09:54:08Z")
Exceptional? OK pretty good. > [@pool](#): > > So if I went to Mount Rainier right now could I find the crash site and bodies? According to the article (published March 2000), > [@](#): > > About seven years ago, rangers found pieces of the Marine plane’s fuselage miles from the crash site. The glacier, a mass of ice that flows downward, splitting open and closing again as the ice melts, then freezes, had spit one 5-inch piece of gray metal into Tahoma Creek. Another, larger piece showed up by the Nisqually River at the park boundary. > > Over the years, glaciologists say, the plane and the remains of the Marines will move through the glacier, part of the mountain. Metal and bones, having been ground among the ice and rocks for decades, are unlikely to be recognizable. So you might stumble upon pieces and yet not know what they are. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582/32 "2015-05-13T13:34:54Z")
Mostly intact corpses of of Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers from 100 years ago are emerging from receding glaciers due to climate change. There’s a little museum in Vicenza where the contents of their pockets are on display. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-bodies-are-on-everest-and-will-they-ever-decay/719582.md?page=1)