#tsewang paljor

[professor-dumbledope]

There are an estimated 200 bodies on Mt. Everest, Earth's tallest peak, and climbers often use them as markers to determine how close they are to the top.

These are three of the four most well-known bodies that currently are, or were at one time, on the mountain:

"Green Boots": the real identity of the body climbers refer to as "Green Boots" is presumed to be Tsewang Paljor, who perished in 1996. Not pictured here is the body of David Sharpe, who, when he stopped at Green Boots' cave to rest, slowly froze to death, even while approximately 40 other climbers passed by him dying and did nothing to help.

Hannelore Schmatz became the first German and the first woman to die on the mountain. She succeeded in reaching the summit, but ignored the warnings of her Sherpa on the way back down and camped overnight in the death zone. While she did survive the night, she finally succumbed to exhaustion, low oxygen, and frostbite on her way back to base camp, dying just 330 feet from safety. Her body is no longer visible on the mountain and has either been swept away by the high winds or buried under the snow.

George Mallory was the first person to attempt to climb Mt. Everest in 1924, using "primitive climbing equipment and heavy oxygen bottles." His upper torso, half of his legs, and his left arm were found in 1999. He was dressed in a tweed suit and a rope injury around his waist suggested he'd been climbing with someone else when they fell off a cliff.

[icarus-suraki]

Here's some examples of the current state of Everest (photos not mine):

There is literally a Disneyworld-size line to summit and there are trash dumps all the way up. It's appalling.

From the article:

The only surviving member of the mountaineering expedition that first reached the summit of Mount Everest has said the world’s highest peak is too crowded and dirty, and the mountain is a god that needs to be respected. Kanchha Sherpa, 91, was one of the 35 members of the team that helped the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay to the top of the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) peak on 29 May 1953. “It would be better for the mountain to reduce the number of climbers,” Kanchha said in an interview in Kathmandu on Saturday. “Right now, there is always a big crowd of people at the summit.” Since the Hillary-Tenzing expedition, the peak has been climbed thousands of times, and it has become more crowded every year. During the spring climbing season in 2023, 667 climbers scaled the peak, bringing in thousands of support staff to the base camp between March and May. There have been concerns about the number of people living on the mountain for months on end, but authorities have no plans to cut down on the number of permits they issue to climbers. Rules require climbers to bring down their own rubbish, equipment and everything they carry to the mountain, or risk losing their deposit, but monitoring has not been effective. “It is very dirty now. People throw tins and wrappings after eating food. Who is going to pick them up now?” Kanchha said. “Some climbers just dump their trash in the crevasse, which would be hidden at that time, but eventually it will flow down to base camp as the snow melts and carries them downward.” For the Sherpa people, Everest is Qomolangma, or goddess mother of the world, and is revered by their community. They usually perform religious rituals before climbing the peak. “They should not be dirtying the mountain. It is our biggest god and they should not be dirtying the gods,” Kanchha said. “Qomolangma is the biggest god for the Sherpas, but people smoke and eat meat and throw them on the mountain.”

[dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd]

Green Boots

The body of “Green Boots,” an Indian climber who died on Everest in 1996 and is believed to be Tsewang Paljor - although the body has not been officially identified - lies near a cave that all climbers must pass on their way to the peak. Green Boots now serves as a waypoint marker that climbers use to gauge how near they are to the summit. Green Boots met his end after becoming separated from his party. He sought refuge in a mountain overhang, but to no avail. He sat there shivering in the cold until he died.

The term Green Boots originated from the green Koflach mountaineering boots on his feet. All expeditions from the north side encounter the body curled in the limestone alcove cave at 8,500 m (27,900 ft) - very close to the summit.

The first recorded video footage of Green Boots was filmed on 21 May 2001 by French climber Pierre Paperon. In the video, Green Boots is shown lying on his left side, facing toward the summit. According to Paperon, Sherpas told him that it was the body of a Chinese mountaineer who had attempted the climb six months earlier.

Over time, the corpse became known both as a landmark on the north route and for its association with the death of David Sharp. In May 2014, Green Boots’ body was reported to be missing from view, presumably removed or buried. It reappeared, however, in 2017.

[thelightfrombelow-blog1]

Working hard and doing what is right gets you to the middle of a lightless pit. You can make it half way, but you’ll only fall back down; it’s too slick to hold on.

It’s those in the middle though that are forgotten, no one cares until we fall and then only if we stay down.

Those on the left and on the right pretend to be enemies, but there is no political divide, at least not really. What there is however, is a class divide. Do you really think any of those onlookers care about what is in the middle of the well we are in? they care about two things, and that is who is beside them and who is on the bottom because even through the light, that is all they see, not to mention it is easier to help and to appease those with less than those that get by.

I could give and make up 100 euphemisms for our society and it would still end up the same. The middle class is merely markers for the rest. We are green boots (or thought to be Tsewang Paljor, though that is only known to those that put effort into finding out).

The truth is, us in the middle are forgotten and while politicians announce plans to help the middle class, to give us refunds, to ensure our prosperity, to make us better, the truth is that when we work hard and we do what is right, we get by and we live mostly unimportant lives before leaving forever, a life that we get only one of and have no legacy from.

There is hard working as well as lazy and handout abusing in all levels of society and that itself isn’t bothersome. Nepotism in itself doesn’t bother me, richness in absurd amounts to single individuals doesn’t bother me, I am not jealous at least mostly. I am envious however and that may be a personal trait that I need to change, but I do get envious of the rich who never have to worry and can have anything they want when they want it and to a lesser amount I am envious of the minority lower class that merely feed off the system and cry for more without a day of work given. I am no saint and there are so many that work harder and get less for it, for those I feel remorse for.

We are not a political caste, we are a wealth divided one and we always have been. In closing, it isn’t that I regret the work I do every day that invades my own mind, it is the fact that those above us who control us don’t actually care about us and they never will.

The middle class is forgotten. We work the hardest and gain the least from it. We get by and live paycheck to paycheck. We can’t afford homes of our own, we have to choose one or two hobbies, we can’t afford children, eating out is a luxury, a vacation means hell for the time before and after, six figures barely makes it these days, we are lost and in a vicious cycle. Is it a California problem or a country problem? I am not sure, but I do know that this isn’t sustainable and we need to change. We can’t keep this up.

[tombstonetourism]

Since his death from exposure on 11 May 1996, "Green Boots" (widely believed to be Indian climber Tsewang Paljor) has served as a trail marker on the main northwest ridge route to the peak of Mount Everest.

[conradscrime]

The Many Deaths on Mount Everest

April 03, 2022

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal of the Himalayas. The China and Nepal border runs across Mount Everests’ summit point, and in 2020, the Chinese and Nepali authorities declared the mountain’s elevation to be 29,031.69 feet (8,848.86 meters). 

Many people attempt to climb Mount Everest, most being experts at climbing and hiking. While many people try to climb this mountain, hundreds have died during their journey. Some estimate that there are more than 200 bodies currently trapped on the mountain and hard conditions means that not every body can be recovered. In 2019, 891 people summited Mount Everest and there were 11 deaths. 

Here are a few stories of those whose lives tragically ended during their journey. 

Hannelore Schmatz

Hannelore Schmatz, a German mountaineer was the fourth woman in history to reach Mount Everest’s summit in 1979. Her husband, 50 year old Gerhard, was the oldest person to ever reach the mountains peak. Years before this journey, the pair had been preparing, through climbing other mountains, including Manaslu, which is only 2,300 feet shorter than Mount Everest. The couple would climb a mountain every year until 1979. 

The couple had six other professional climbers with them at the time. The couple had reached the South Col camp at 26,200 feet on September 24, 1979 and set up camp. However, a blizzard that lasted days hit and forced them back down the mountain. 

The couple split up at one point, with Gerhard’s group making it back to South Col first, beginning to travel to Mount Everest’s peak. They reached the summit on October 1, but were forced back down due to weather conditions. 

A descending group had warned Hannelore and her team that the conditions were too dangerous to continue. However, this did not stop Hannelore and she continued on at 5 am the next day. Gerhard made it to their base camp and heard through the radio that his wife had made it to the top. 

On the way down, Hannelore and another climber, Ray Genet, were overcome with exhaustion, and even though they were warned, they decided to build a camp. Their shelter was built in the Death Zone. Ray died from hypothermia, leading Hannelore to frantically descend, however having no more energy she ended up slumping against her backpack and died. Her last words were, “water...water.” 

Hannelore Schmatz was the first woman and first German to die on Mount Everest. Her body, like many others have been guides to other climbers. The wind on the mountain eventually threw Hannelore’s corpse off the side of the Kangshung Face. 

David Sharp

In 2006, a man named David Sharp wanted to make his third attempt at climbing Mount Everest. On May 14, David was near the top when he told his other climbers that he wanted to sleep. David froze to death just a few hours later. 

David was from England, and before leaving for his Mount Everest journey he had told his mother that he would never be alone, that there were tons of other climbers around. The group David was with did not realize he was missing until after they got back to base camp. 

The same night, a group of climbers reached the limestone cave where “Green Boots” was. Known as “Green Boots” was a man who had died on the mountain in 2003, and who infamously serves as a landmark for climbers. The climbers however noticed a second body that was next to Green Boots, which would eventually be discovered as David Sharp. 

This group called out to David, but there was no response. The group decided to keep climbing, and it wasn’t until a second group came by about 20 minutes later, also noticing David, that they called to him but he reacted and waved them off. 

More than 40 climbers came across David Sharp and it is unknown as to why none of them rescued him. David Sharp still remains on Mount Everest, and like Green Boots, serves as a reminder of the dangers to other climbers. 

Green Boots

Green Boots was an Indian climber named Tsewang Paljor, is probably the most famous Mount Everest death. He was named Green Boots, because he was wearing neon-coloured gear when he died, in 1996. 

Tsewang was ready to climb Mount Everest with his ITBP colleagues and became the first Indian team to reach the North Summit. On May 10, 1996, a storm took over, and Tsewang, along with his seven other climbers were dead. Their deaths became known as the 1996 Everest Disaster and was the deadliest day in the mountain’s history until 2014. 

There was only one survivour in the group, a man named Harbhajan Singh, who remembers turning back and trying to convince the others to follow. He claims the others were determined to keep going, having what is known as “summit fever” and wanting to make history. 

Marco Siffredi 

Marco Siffredi was a 23 year old French snowboarder who had climbed Mount Everest in May 2001, wanting to find the “Holy Grail” of snowboarding routes. He did indeed find this, however there was not enough snow for him, so he again attempted his journey in September 2002.

After nearly a 13 hour climb, Marco and three sherpas made it to the summit of the Hornbein Couloir route on September 8, 2002. Marco found the path fresh with thick snow, perfect for snowboarding. 

After a few hours of resting, clouds began to gather, and the sherpas urged Marco to camp for the night, and they would descend the next morning. However, Marco did not listen to this, putting on his snowboarding gear. 

Marco was last seen gliding down the mountain, as the sherpas rushed back to the base camp to beat the impending storm. As they were rushing back, the sherpas noticed a lone figure, but as they reached the location where they saw this lone figure they noticed there was no tracks in the snow and the figure was gone. 

The sherpas believed they had seen a ghost, an omen that Marco had died and when they returned to the base camp and Marco was not there, they believed they were right. 

Marco has never been seen since, and no one knows what happened to him. Many experts believed he collapsed with exhaustion and was swallowed by a ravine. The impending storm also could have triggered an avalanche, which could have happened without the sherpas noticing as the peaks on Mount Everest are so vast. 

Marco’s sister actually believes that her brother did survive and chose to live with the local ya herders in Tibit instead, perhaps not wanting to ever be found. 

Nobukazu Kuriki 

Nobukazu Kuriki was a Japanese aplinist and motivational speaker, who had lost nine of his fingers to frostbite during a previous attempt, but was determined to reach Mount Everest’s summit. 

In May of 2018, Nobukazu had only 5,000 feet to go before reaching the top, when he was struck by a fever and a cough. Despite this, he decided to keep going, and even let his social media accounts know he wasn’t going to stop for anything. 

Unforunately, Nobukazu did not make it, and succumbed to the elements. His body was confirmed as being found near Camp Three around an altitude of 24,000 feet in his tent. 

Nobukazu was a very accomplished climber, having attempted Mount Everest seven times before he died. He finished a solo climb of the Himalayas’ Broad Peak, which is the 12th highest in the world. 

Despite many attempts and success stories, the trek up to Mount Everest is a hard journey, even for the most experienced climbers. Unfortunately, it is hard to recover most bodies of those whose lives ended there, and there will be many more tragic deaths of future climbers. 

[gay-jesus-probably]

@imma-dragon53 Mr Dumbass (who I have described in the script as Lord of the Dumbfucks right now) is not a trail marker; his body was found in his tent on the North Col by a proper expedition the year after he died, and the body was buried by being pushed down a crevasse; they also recovered his journal, which is how we know most of his misadventures on the mountain. His death site is a landmark, just... not because of him; North Col was the site of Camp IV for the early expeditions, and in the modern day it's Camp I on the Tibetan route.

Also, Green Boots is not a trail marker either anymore! His identity was never confirmed, but was likely the remains of Tsewang Paljor, who died descending from a summit during the blizzard of 1996 (or it's the remains of Dorje Morup, one of Paljor's teammates). Either way, in 2014 a Chinese expedition moved the body off the trail; it's apparently still exposed, but extremely hard to find. Paljor's family believed the remains to be his, and were glad to hear he'd been moved, though they weren't pleased to have learned about it from a journalist interviewing them about him years afterwards.

Another notable landmark body that's been hidden is Sleeping Beauty, aka the remains of Francys Arsentiev, who died during her descent in 1998. Her identity was never in question; multiple other climbers had risked their own lives trying to save her, including her husband Sergei, who was last scene ascending for a rescue attempt. A British man, Ian Woodall, gave up his own summit attempt upon finding Francys on the verge of death in the morning, but she was too far gone to assist in her own descent, and she died while he was still attempting to rescue her. Woodall was understandably shaken by this, and in 2007 he returned to the mountain for the purpose of laying her to rest, giving her a brief funeral service before pushing her off a cliff. She was survived by her son, who wasn't thrilled that Woodall didn't contact him about it, but he understood why Woodall felt obligated to lay her to rest himself, and didn't think to look for her relatives first.

Also the remains of Sergei Arsentiev were found in 1999, ironically by the team that was specifically looking for the corpse of that one specific guy I mentioned from the very first expeditions (and a second guy who died with him, but he's still MIA. which is unfortunate, because that guys body should have their camera, and historical experts with Kodak say the film might be preserved well enough they could still develop the pictures)

So awhile ago my sibling suggested that I should make a podcast, because I really like infodumping at people, and that's a good way to subject an audience to my wild ramblings. And I'm not saying I'm definitely gonna do it, I'm just saying there may or may not be a word doc with a big stack of ideas of things I could totally infodump about for a large amount of time. And it's entirely possible there's a script for an episode in progress that's like already at 6k words.

It's about the history of climbing on Mount Everest. For context on how unnecessarily in depth this thing is, I ramble for 2k words before anyone gets within a hundred kilometres of the mountain in question. The 2k words of rambling is necessary okay, I need to explain why the mountain is called Everest, so that I can then explain why I'm not calling the mountain Everest.

Also there's a non-zero chance that at one point in the script I inform the audience to remember one specific guy that I've just brought up, he's a major part of this story, and later we're gonna examine his corpse, it'll be great.

...I swear to god, the corpse thing is important, that one dead body came with some very exciting revelations. The dead are treated with respect in my still theoretical podcast.

Okay fine, they're mostly treated with respect, there might be an entire section dedicated just to making fun of one specific guy for dying on the mountain like an idiot, but trust me, I cannot possibly speak about that guy with respect, the entire sequence of events that brought that guy up the mountain to die was so batfuck wild. It's too funny to be sad, okay, everyone else gets treated seriously. Just not the guy that was 100% certain he could reach the summit first without any assistance, mountaineering experience, bottled oxygen, equipment, or food. His first plan was to crash a plane directly into the mountain and step off onto the summit. It was 1934. There's just so much going on there, it's great.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

Green Boots

The body of “Green Boots,” an Indian climber who died on Everest in 1996 and is believed to be Tsewang Paljor - although the body has not been officially identified - lies near a cave that all climbers must pass on their way to the peak. Green Boots now serves as a waypoint marker that climbers use to gauge how near they are to the summit. Green Boots met his end after becoming separated from his party. He sought refuge in a mountain overhang, but to no avail. He sat there shivering in the cold until he died.

The term Green Boots originated from the green Koflach mountaineering boots on his feet. All expeditions from the north side encounter the body curled in the limestone alcove cave at 8,500 m (27,900 ft) - very close to the summit.

The first recorded video footage of Green Boots was filmed on 21 May 2001 by French climber Pierre Paperon. In the video, Green Boots is shown lying on his left side, facing toward the summit. According to Paperon, Sherpas told him that it was the body of a Chinese mountaineer who had attempted the climb six months earlier.

Over time, the corpse became known both as a landmark on the north route and for its association with the death of David Sharp. In May 2014, Green Boots' body was reported to be missing from view, presumably removed or buried. It reappeared, however, in 2017.

[thetiredinsomniac]

Rainbow Valley, Everest

26,000 feet up Everest is an area called "The Danger Zone". It is called as such because the human body can't survive unless it is aided. Hence, why climbers carry oxygen tanks. However, there are some people who unfortunately cannot make it and end up spending their last breaths on Mount Everest. This area can also be called Rainbow Valley due to the colourful clothing worn by the corpses 26,000 feet up. There are around 200 bodies and $30,000 to bring the remains of someone back down. There is another "landmark" of a man called Tsewang Paljor, nicknamed "The Green Boots Cave". This nickname was given because of his green boots you can see in the image below.

Information found here.

Why not read about Chernobyl?

[samuraisharkie]

just saw a post of someone trying to make a meme joke out of an image of Tsewang Paljor, aka “Green Boots” the famous Mount Everest corpse used as a landmark up until 2014. That is a real human’s dead body, tragically lost and unidentified for YEARS and used the same way a tree or rock would be because he was too high up to move safely. That is not fucking funny, it’s not a joke, and any and everyone that laughed at it is a piece of worthless and hateful scum. I hope the motherfucker that made the post (I flagged and blocked immediately so I don’t remember their name) suffers.

[bbcbreakingnews]

China wants to control Tibetan religious institutions, major power struggle expected after demise of 14th Dalai Lama: Report

TAIPEI: China feels that it should control religious institution in Tibet and due to this a greater crisis will emerge with the eventual demise of 14th Dalai Lama as there will be a major power struggle over who will get to choose the religious leaders of Tibet, according to a report in Taiwan Times. China, which had installed their puppet Panchen Lama in 90s to control Tibet, is expected to use him to legitimise the appointment of their own selected Chinese candidate as the next leader of Tibetan Buddhism (the 15th Dalai Lama), write Tsewang Paljor in Taiwan Times. Ninety-nine per cent of Tibetans do not accept Chinese appointed Panchen Lama as the real or true Panchen Lama, Paljor stated. They regard him as false Panchen Lama. The Chinese government occupied Tibet in 1950 and has ever since tried to control the region. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and the 10the Panchen Lama (Lobsang Trinley Lhundrup Choekyi Gyaltsen) stayed behind in Tibet. He spoke against Chinese rule many times and wrote a report chronicling Tibet’s famines in the 1960s. He was then arrested and spent more than eight years in jail. He died in 1989, due to the atrocities committed by the Chinese authorities, said Paljor As per the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama was requested by the search team of the 11th Panchen Lama headed by Chadrel Rinpoche to identify the (reincarnated) Panchen Lama from a list of possible candidates. On May 15, 1995, the Dalai Lama announced Gedhun as the 11th Panchen Lama. Two days later, the Chinese government abducted the child and his family. “None of them have ever been seen or heard from again. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who had just turned six, became the world’s youngest political prisoner. Chinese authorities even arrested Chadrel Rinpoche and his assistant Jampa Chung for finding Gedhun and disclosing his information to the Dalai Lama. They were imprisoned for six – and four years respectively for ‘selling state secrets’ and ‘colluding with separatist forces abroad,” he wrote. The Chinese government rejected the Dalai Lama’s choice of Panchen Lama stating that his ascendance was “illegal and invalid” and, six months after Gedhun’s abduction, China announced that it had found the “real” reincarnation of 10th Panchen Lama named Gyaltsen Norbu, a Tibetan boy – the son of two Communist Party members – as the 11th Panchen Lama. However, Tibetans have not accepted the Chinese appointed Panchen Lama. ‘Tashi Lhunpo’ monastery University is the real seat of Panchen Lamas but Gyaltsen Norbu never stays in Tashi Lhunpo”. Defying government orders, local Tibetan officials refused to participate in preparations for the visit. This was not the first time Gyaltsen Norbu had faced popular boycotts by Tibetans. Similar mass public boycotts were witnessed a few years ago when the Chinese authorities brought Gyaltsen Norbu to Labrang monastery. Time and again, Tibetans have also proved that they are not going to accept him as their religious leader, Paljor noted. “Chinese now feel that Tibet is a part of China and that the control of its religious institutions should be in their hands. It is a major power struggle over who will get to choose the religious leaders of Tibet. And, of course, the greater crisis will emerge with the eventual demise of the 14th Dalai Lama,” he wrote. “However, in order to checkmate China, the Dalai Lama has declared that he will be reborn outside Tibet in exile. And so on his demise, there will be a massive search by the Chinese and a massive search by the exile community held simultaneously to find a new Dalai Lama,” he added.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/12/30/china-wants-to-control-tibetan-religious-institutions-major-power-struggle-expected-after-demise-of-14th-dalai-lama-report/

[hoanq2802]

Giày xanh - thi hài gây ám ảnh nhất trên đỉnh Everest

New Post has been published on https://khachsanthanhdong.com/giay-xanh-thi-hai-gay-am-anh-nhat-tren-dinh-everest.html

Giày xanh - thi hài gây ám ảnh nhất trên đỉnh Everest

Tsewang Paljor chết trong tư thế nằm nghiêng như thể vừa mới chợp mắt, nhì tay khoanh trước ngực để giữ ấm và kéo mũ trùm kín đầu, đôi chân duỗi dài và để lộ ra đôi giày màu xanh đầy ám ảnh.

Giày xanh là tên nhưng mà những người leo núi sau này đặt cho thi hài Tsewang Paljor, nhà leo núi người Ấn Độ. Paljor chết trong tư thế nằm nghiêng, núp phía sau một khối đá lớn. Anh đã kéo mũ để che kín mặt, đôi tay khoanh trước ngực cho ấm. Đôi chân duỗi dài ra gần lối đi, buộc mọi người khi lên đỉnh núi phải bước qua đôi giày màu xanh lá của anh. vì vậy, Paljor được mọi người đặt cho tên gọi là Giày xanh. Paljor chết nhưng mà cứ ngỡ như anh đang nằm ngủ, và vừa mới chợp mắt.

Giày xanh – thi hài gây ám ảnh nhất trên đỉnh Everest

Giày xanh – thi hài gây ám ảnh nhất đối với những du khách leo Everest.

thi hài của Giày xanh mắc kẹt trên núi, nằm không xa đỉnh Everest, như một dấu vết nghiệt té của công cuộc đoạt được đỉnh núi từ mặt phía bắc. Nhiều người cũng mất mạng trên ngọn núi này, nhưng thi hài của Giày xanh là cái tên được nhắc tới nhiều nhất.

Theo BBC, khoảng 80% người leo Everest từ mặt phía bắc đã ngơi nghỉ tại nơi Giày xanh nằm và rất khó để quên được hình ảnh của anh.

“Tôi tin chắc rằng, những người từng leo Everest đều biết về Giày xanh, hay đọc câu chuyện về anh ấy”, Noel Hana, một nhà thám hiểm từng 7 lần đoạt được Everest thành công cho biết.

Paljor sinh năm 1968, là thành viên của lực lượng cảnh sát biên giới Ấn Độ – Tây Tạng. Anh qua đời vào năm 1996, trong một trận bão tuyết. Khi đó, chàng trẻ trai Ấn Độ mới 28 tuổi và chưa có khách du lịch gái.

Gần 20 năm sau cái chết của Giày xanh, nhóm phóng viên BBC quay trở lại khuôn viên của gia đình anh, nằm ở Sakti. Lối đi vào nhà anh đầy cỏ dại cùng những bụi cúc nở hoa tươi tỉnh. tiếp đón những vị khách phương xa là mẹ anh, năm đó đã 73 tuổi. Bà nồng nhiệt mời họ vào nhà, uống trà cùng bánh quy. Nhưng khi câu chuyện nhắc tới cái tên Paljor, khuôn mặt đang tươi cười của bà bỗng nhiên vụt tắt.

Ngôi nhà của gia đình Paljor. Ảnh: BBC.

Paljor là một trong 5 người con của bà Tashi Angmo. Trong tâm trí của người mẹ già, anh là đứa con ít nói, rất tốt bụng nên được người dân trong làng quý mến. Và cũng vì nhút nhát nên anh chưa từng có khách du lịch gái. Trong những lần tâm sự cùng em trai, Paljor cho biết anh quan tâm tới việc góp sức cuộc đời mình cho một ý tưởng lớn lao hơn là chuyện kết hôn.

Là đại trượng phu cả, Paljor có trách nhiệm trợ giúp gia đình. Hết lớp 10, anh bỏ học để gia nhập đội cảnh sát biên giới. Cả gia đình rất ủng hộ sự nghiệp của cậu đại trượng phu lớn.

Nhưng khi biết đại trượng phu được nhận nhiệm vụ đoạt được Everest, đỉnh núi cao nhưng cũng rất nguy hiểm, bà Angmo đã ngăn cản đại trượng phu. Tuy vậy, anh vẫn lên đường.

Cái chết của Paljor từng trở thành tâm điểm của làn sóng tranh cãi, bao gồm cả việc anh và nhì đồng đội khác đã chết vì leo núi trong thời tiết khắc nghiệt nhưng mà không tuân theo mệnh lệnh của lãnh đạo.

4 người trong nhóm leo núi hôm đó, ngoại trừ Paljor còn có Tsewang Smanla và Dorje Morup, cùng người lãnh đạo Harbhajan Singh. Singh nhớ lại, ông rất tự tín vào kỹ năng của 3 cấp dưới. Tuy nhiên, mọi việc xảy ra theo chiều hướng xấu là do mọi người trong đoàn đã không làm đúng theo mệnh lệnh.

Theo BBC, ít nhất hơn 200 người đã thiệt mạng khi đoạt được đỉnh núi cao nhất toàn cầu này. Ảnh: BBC.

Các vấn đề mở màn từ sáng ngày 10/5/1996, nhóm leo núi đã xuất phát muộn lúc 8h, thay vì 3h30 như kế hoạch. Do vậy, mọi người đã sửa dây thừng để sẵn sàng cho việc xuống khỏi đỉnh Everest, thay vì lên đỉnh trước.

14h30 cùng ngày, đội đã lên gần tới đỉnh, nhưng gió thổi mạnh hơn. Khi đó, Singh yêu cầu nhóm của mình phải đi xuống, muộn nhất là 15h, sau đó bị tụt lại so với nhóm nhưng mà Paljor dẫn đầu. Ông ra hiệu cho cả nhóm quay lại, nhưng không ai làm thế. Bỏng lạnh và kiệt sức, Singh quyết định quay lại trại VI và đợi lính của mình.

15h hôm đó, khi liên lạc với quân của mình, Singh được thông tin họ đã gần tới đỉnh. E ngại thời tiết rất xấu, ông đã ra lệnh cho họ nhanh chóng quay lại nhưng Paljor xin với sếp được tiếp tục đoạt được đỉnh cao. Cuộc thì thầm bị cắt đứt giữa chừng do thời tiết xấu.

17h35, Singh liên hệ được với những người lính. Họ báo rằng đã đoạt được được đỉnh Everest. Nhưng cả ba người đã không bao giờ có thể trở lại.

Nói về thời khắc đó, Harbhajan Singh, giờ đã là tổng thanh tra tại đội cảnh sát biên phòng, nhìn về phía xa xôi: “Nhóm chúng tôi hôm đó có 4 người. Tôi là người duy nhất sống sót”.

Mặc dù Paljor đã chết một cách hero trên đỉnh Everest, gia đình anh nhận được rất ít tiền trợ cấp. Mẹ của anh cho biết, đứa con với bà là vô giá và tiền không là vấn đề. 

Everest hùng vĩ những cũng đầy nguy hiểm

Anh Minh

Theo: https://khachsanthanhdong.com/

[morganbelarus]

Climate change has led to a chilling discovery on Mount Everest.

via Gunther Hagleitner / Flickr

Mount Everest is the Earth’s highest mountain, rising 29,029 feet above sea level on the border of China and Nepal. The first known people to reach its summit were Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary in 1953, and since, over 48000 have reached its peak.

Over 300 people have met their demise on the icy mountain. But what happens on Everest stays on Everest, including the dead bodies.

Given the mountain’s treacherous terrain, it costs $40,000 to $80,000 to have a corpse brought down, so nearly two-thirds of those who’ve died remain on the mountain. Plus, for some climbers, being left on the icy slopes of Everest is an honor.

“Most climbers like to be left on the mountains if they died,” Alan Arnette, a noted mountaineer, told the BBC. “So it would be deemed disrespectful to just remove them unless they need to be moved from the climbing route or their families want them.”

One such unfortunate soul is Tsewang Paljor, known by climbers as “Green Boots.” In 1996, he died during an intense blizzard and his body has become a marker for hikers near the summit.

green boots on Everest #sad pic.twitter.com/hB08o96qC3

— Queen Elisabeth (@QueenElisabeth) March 26, 2014

In recent years, more of the Everest fallen are becoming visible due to climate change. “Because of global warming, the ice sheet and glaciers are fast melting, and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becoming exposed,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, said in a statement.

“We have noticed that the ice level at and around the base camp has been going down, and that is why the bodies are becoming exposed,” Sherpa said.

Bodies have also been surfacing at the Khumbu Icefall, one of the most dangerous parts of the South Col route to Everest’s summit.

via Brigitte Djajasasmita / Flickr

Some corpses are currently being removed from the Chinese side of the mountain to prepare for the spring hiking season, but most are staying put on the Nepal side because of a law that requires government agencies’ involvement when dealing with bodies.

Last year, a team of researchers drilled the Khumbu Glacier and found the coldest ice was 2C warmer than the mean annual air temperature.

While the newly-exposed bodies on Everest are a chilling sight, if climate change continues, there will be much larger problems in the surrounding area. Melting glaciers on Everest and other Himalayan mountains will disrupt water availability in the region. This will have disastrous effects on farming and hydropower.

Göran Höglund (Kartläsarn) / Flickr

Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

Climate change has led to a chilling discovery on Mount Everest. was originally posted by MetNews

[occultaeveritatis]

Case #034: The Dead on Mount Everest

Occultae Veritatis Podcast Case #034: The Dead on Mount Everest

Mount Everest, at 8,848 meters (29,029 ft) is the world's highest mountain and a particularly desirable peak for mountaineers. Over 375 people have died trying to climb it. Most deaths have been attributed to avalanches, injury from fall, ice collapse, exposure, frostbite, or health problems related to conditions on the mountain.

Palet Cleanser: Over The Mountain, Across The Sea - Johnnie & Joe

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/ovpodcast

Further Reading: Mount Everest : Into the Death Zone - the fifth estate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEcHBFs-qME

Into Thin Air Book by Jon Krakauer

Mount Everest, Climbing, Mountaineering, World Record, Green Boots, Tsewang Paljor, summit fever, Francys Arsentiev, Death Zone, Base Camp, Nepal, David Sharp, George Mallory, Hannelore Schmatz, Rainbow Valley, Maurice Wilson, Marco Siffredi, Sherpas, Dan Fredinburg, Western Cwm, Google Adventure Team, Peter Kinloch, Karl Gordon Henize, Khumbu Ice Fall, Base Camp 1, Base camp 2, Base camp 3, Base camp 4, Lhotse Face, Yellow Band, Oxygen, Summit Ridge, Balcony, Nuptse, Summit, Edmund Hilary, Sagarmāthā, Chomolungma, Death Zone, Hot Air Balloon, Hypothermia, Hypoxia, Qomolangma, Jo-mo-glang-ma, Jomo Langma, Geneva Spur

New Episode

[thedailyexcelsior]

Dy CM visits various power projects at Leh

LEH: Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh today visited the several Power stations at Leh.

He was accompanied by Executive Councilor for Education, Dorjey Motup, EC Agriculture Tsering Wangdus, Chief Engineer Generation & M&RE Wing Ladakh  Kuldeep Raina, Executive Engineer Project Division Tsewang Paljor, Executive Engineer M&RE Tundup Splazang and other concerned officers and officials.

At GIS…

[petitrangement]

“But when I say our sport is a hazardous one, I do not mean that when we climb mountains there is a large chance that we shall be killed, but that we are surrounded by dangers which will kill us if we let them.”

- George Mallory, 1924

No one knows exactly how many bodies remain on Mount Everest today, but there are certainly more than 200. Climbers and Sherpas lie tucked into crevasses, buried under avalanche snow and exposed on catchment basin slopes – their limbs sun-bleached and distorted. Most are concealed from view, but some are familiar fixtures on the route to Everest’s summit.

Perhaps most well-known of all are the remains of Tsewang Paljor, a young Indian climber who lost his life in the infamous 1996 blizzard. For nearly 20 years, Paljor’s body – popularly known as Green Boots, for the neon footwear he was wearing when he died – has rested near the summit of Everest’s north side. When snow cover is light, climbers have had to step over Paljor’s extended legs on their way to and from the peak.

(Read part one of this story, exploring who Paljor was and how he got there).

Mountaineers largely view such matters as tragic but unavoidable. For the rest of us, however, the idea that a corpse could remain in plain sight for nearly 20 years can seem mind-boggling. Will bodies like Paljor’s remain in their place forever, or can something be done? And will we ever decide that Mount Everest simply is not worth it? As I discovered in this two-part series, the answer is a story of control, danger, grief and surprises.

Source: Richard Salisbury and Elizabeth Hawley, Himalaya Database. Note: In some cases, multiple deaths in one location eg in 2015 an earthquake killed 18 (Credit: Nigel Hawtin)

Before answering those questions, however, it is worth asking something more fundamental: when death is all around, why do people gamble their lives on Everest at all?

Reaching the highest point on Earth once served as a symbol of “man’s desire to conquer the Universe,” as British mountaineer George Mallory put it. When a reporter once asked him why he wished to climb Everest’s 8,848m (29,029ft)-high peak, Mallory snapped “Because it’s there!”

Climbing Everest looks like a big joke today – Captain MS Kohli

Everest, however, is no longer the romantic, unconquered place it once was. Since Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first men to stand on its summit in 1953, the mountain has been summited more than 7,000 times by more than 4,000 people, who have left a trail of garbage, human waste and bodies in their wake.

Everest has now been summited by more than 4000 people (Credit: Rex)

“Climbing Everest looks like a big joke today,” says Captain MS Kohli, a mountaineer who in 1965 led India’s first successful expedition to summit Mount Everest. “It absolutely does not resemble the old days when there were adventures, challenges and exploration. It’s just physically going up with the help of others.”

It is a challenge, but the bigger challenge would be to climb it and not tell anybody

For Sherpas and others hired to work on Everest, the reason they keep coming back is that it’s a high-paying job. For everyone else, however, motivations are often difficult to explain, even to oneself. Professional climbers often insist that their drive differs from that of the majority of clients who pay to climb Everest, a group that is frequently accused of the lowliest of motivations: bagging the world’s highest mountain for bragging rights. “Somebody once said that climbing Everest is a challenge, but the bigger challenge would be to climb it and not tell anybody,” says Billi Bierling, a Kathmandu-based journalist and climber and personal assistant for Elizabeth Hawley, a former journalist, now 91, who has been chronicling Himalayan expeditions since the 1960s.

But few would actually admit that they climb Everest only so they can boast about it later. Instead, Everest tends to assume a symbolic importance for those who set their sights on it, often articulated terms of transformation, triumph over personal obstacles or the crown jewel in a bucket list of lifelong goals. “Everyone has a different motivation,” Bierling says. “Someone wants to spread the ashes of their dead husband, another does it for their mother, others want to kill a personal demon.”

“In some cases, it’s just ego,” Hawley adds. “In fact you have to have a certain amount of ego to get up the damn thing.”

As for professional climbers, whose love of mountaineering extends well beyond Everest, psychologists have tried to weed their motivations out for decades. Some concluded that high-risk athletes – mountaineers included – are sensation-seekers who thrive off thrill. Yet think for a moment about what climbing a mountain like Everest entails – weeks spent at various camps, allowing the body to adapt to altitude; inching up the mountain, step-by-step; using sheer willpower to push through unrelenting discomfort and exhaustion – and this explanation makes less sense. High altitude climbing, in fact, is a slog. As Matthew Barlow, a postdoctoral researcher in sports psychology at Bangor University, Wales, puts it: “Climbing something like Everest is boring, toilsome and about as far from an adrenaline rush as you can get.”

Compared to other athletes, mountaineers crave a feeling of control over their lives

A climber himself, Barlow suspected that sensation-seeking theory has long been misapplied to mountaineers. His research suggests that, compared to other athletes, mountaineers tend to possess an exaggerated “expectancy of agency”. In other words, they crave a feeling of control over their lives. Because the complexities of modern life defy such control, they are forced to seek agency elsewhere. As Barlow explains: “To demonstrate that I have influence over my life, I might go into an environment that is incredibly difficult to control – like the high mountains.”

Flirting with mortality, in other words, is part of the appeal. “If you can escape death or dodge fatal accidents, it allows you the illusion of heroism, even though I don’t think it’s truly heroic,” says David Roberts, a mountaineer, journalist and author based in Massachusetts. “It’s not like playing poker where the worst that could happen is you lose some money. The stakes are ultimate ones.”

Reaching the highest point on Earth once served as a symbol of “man’s desire to conquer the Universe,” as George Mallory put it (Credit: Rex)

Barlow and colleagues also found that mountaineers believe that they struggle emotionally, especially when it came to loving partner relationships. They may compensate for this by becoming experts at dealing with emotions in another, more straightforwardly terrifying realm. “The emotional anxiety of everyday life is confusing, ambiguous and diffuse, and you don’t know the source of it,” Barlow says. “In the mountains, the emotion is fear, and the source is clear: if I fall, I die.”

In her decades interviewing mountaineers, Hawley, too, has noticed this tendency. “In some cases, climbers just want to get away from home and responsibilities,” she says. “Let the mother take care of the son that’s sick, or deal with little Johnny who got in trouble at school.”

Many of the climbers Barlow and his colleagues included in their study – especially professional ones – also exhibited what psychologists refer to as counterphobia. Rather than avoid the things they fear, they feel compelled to face-off with those elements. “It’s a misnomer that climbers are fearless,” Barlow says. “Instead, as a climber, I know I will be afraid, but the key bit is that I approach that fear and try to overcome it.”

Like a junkie who’s got his fix, mountaineers usually report a transfer effect from their experience – a feeling of satiation immediately after returning from a peak. “For me, coming back from a climb physically exhausted but mentally relaxed is the dream,” says Mark Jenkins, a journalist, author and adventurer in Wyoming.

To continue to sate that desire, mountaineers thus set their sights on increasingly challenging peaks, routes or circumstances, and as the world’s highest mountain, Everest has a natural place in that progression. “You have to up the ante, which over time leads to greater and greater risk taking,” Barlow says. “If the transfer effect is never enough for you to stop, then ultimately you likely die.”

Given all this, climbers must decide for themselves if their passion is worth potentially losing their lives – and abandoning their loved ones – for. “On my own volition, I accept the risk and suffering, and that there is no external benefit to society,” says Conrad Anker, a mountaineer, author and leader of the North Face climbing team. “But as long as one is clear and transparent with your family and wife, then I don’t think it’s morally incorrect.”

If you’re willing to put a round in the chamber of a revolver and put it in your mouth and pull the trigger, then yeah, it’s a pretty good idea to climb Everest

Some, however, do get their fill. Seaborn Beck Weathers, a pathologist in Dallas who lost his nose and parts of his hands and feet – and very nearly his life – on Everest in 1996, was originally attracted to climbing precisely because of a paralysing fear of heights. As he described in his book, Left for Dead, facing off in the mountains with that fear proved to be an effective (albeit temporary) antidote for his severe depression. Everest was his last mountaineering experience, though, and that close call with death saved his marriage by causing him to realise what was truly important in life. Because of that, he does not regret it. But at the same time, he would not recommend anyone to climb Everest.

“My view has changed on this fairly dramatically,” he says. “If you don’t have anyone who cares about you or is dependent on you, if you have no friends or colleagues, and if you’re willing to put a single round in the chamber of a revolver and put it in your mouth and pull the trigger, then yeah, it’s a pretty good idea to climb Everest.”

Source: Richard Salisbury and Elizabeth Hawley, Himalaya Database (Credit: Nigel Hawtin)

War zones aside, the high mountains are the only places on Earth where it is expected and even normal to encounter exposed human remains. And of all the mountains where climbers have lost their lives, Everest likely carries the highest risk of coming across bodies simply because there are so many. “You’ll be walking along, it’s a beautiful day, and all of a sudden there’s someone there,” says mountaineer Ed Viesturs. “It’s like, wow – it’s a wakeup call.”

At times, the encounter is personal. Ang Dorjee Chhuldim Sherpa, a mountaineering guide at Adventure Consultants who has summited Everest 17 times, was good friends with Scott Fischer, a mountain guide who died in the 1996 disaster on Everest’s south side. After his death, Fischer’s body remained in sight. “When you’re passing by and you see your friend lying there, you know exactly who it is,” he says. “I try not to look, but my eyes always go there.”

“People are somehow able to walk by these bodies and continue climbing by rationalising to themselves that whatever happened to this person will not happen to me,” says Christopher Kayes, chair and professor of management at the George Washington University in Washington DC.

Someone had placed a plastic bag over the man’s face to prevent birds from pecking out his eyes

Some, however, are not able to continue climbing. In 2010, Geert van Hurck, an amateur climber from Belgium, was making his way up Everest’s north side when he came across a “coloured mass” on the ground. Realising it was a climber, Van Hurck quickly approached, eager to offer any help he could. That was when he saw the bag. Someone had placed a plastic bag over the man’s face to prevent birds from pecking out his eyes. “It just didn’t feel right to climb any further and celebrate at the summit,” Van Hurck says. “I think maybe I was seeing myself lying there.”  He would almost certainly have summited, but returned to camp, shaken and upset.

Professional climbers often insist that their drive differs from that of the majority of clients who pay to climb Everest (Credit: Rex)

His decision to turn back, however, is rare. Hundreds of climbers have passed corpses en-route to their summit, often without knowing who they are. Indeed, almost immediately after Paljor died, uncertainty has surrounded his remains. Some even doubt that the body belongs to Paljor at all, thinking it more likely to be his climbing partner, Dorje Morup. But for whatever reason, Paljor’s identity has largely stuck, even if most climbers today know the remains only as Green Boots, and the place where he rests as Green Boots’ Cave.

That enclave, located at about 8,500m high and sheltered from the wind, is a popular resting point for climbers on their way back from the summit, who may sit down there to catch their breath or have a snack. “It’s pretty grisly that they named that cave after him,” says amateur mountaineer Bill Burke, the only person to have climbed the highest mountain on every continent after age 60. “It’s really become a landmark on the north side.”

In 2006, the cave – and Green Boots – earned even more infamous renown when a British climber named David Sharp was discovered huddled inside, on the brink of death. The story was widely circulated by the media, which claimed that some 40 climbers passed Sharp by, who died later that day, without offering aid. As is so often the case, however, much of the story’s nuance was lost in those reports; in fact, most climbers did not notice Sharp, or assumed that he was simply resting. Others accused of ignoring his plight were not informed until it was much too late to help.

Sharp’s body was removed from sight a year later at the request of his parents, but Paljor, whose moniker was further solidified by the incident, remained.

When summit fever takes hold, success shapes decisions more than safety (Credit: Rex)

What to do with bodies on the mountain depends on a number of factors, including the wishes of the deceased and his or her families, and where the death took place. Some make arrangements for their body to be returned to their family, if possible. Burke did not discuss those details with his wife, but he did ensure that his body would be delivered to her, should the worst happen. “It’s not something you dwell on,” he says. “I knew I needed repatriation insurance so I got it, but I didn’t give it a lot of thought.”

Returning a body to a family costs thousands of dollars

Returning a body to a family costs thousands of dollars, however, and requires the efforts of six to eight Sherpas – potentially putting those men’s lives in danger. “Even picking up a candy wrapper high up on the mountain is a lot of effort, because it’s totally frozen and you have to dig around it,” says Ang Tshering Sherpa, chairman and founder of Asian Trekking, a company based in Kathmandu, and president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. “A dead body that normally weighs 80kg might weigh 150kg when frozen and dug out with the surrounding ice attached.”

Typically, though, mountaineers who die on a mountain wish to remain there, a tradition co-opted from seafarers more than a century ago. “But when we have 500 people stepping over a body ever year, that’s no longer acceptable,” says Jenkins, who had to navigate four bodies when he was last on Everest. “That’s disgraceful.”

When a body does become a well-photographed fixture of the mountain, families are often the ones who suffer most. “One day you’re waving goodbye at the airport, and the next is, ‘Oh, dad’s called Green Boots and they’re walking past him,’” says Greg Child, a mountaineer and author in Utah.

I was really upset and shocked, and I didn’t want my family to know

Paljor’s brother Thinley recalls the moment he discovered the nickname, along with photos, in 2011: “I was on the internet, and I found that they’re calling him Green Boots or something,” he says. “I was really upset and shocked, and I really didn’t want my family to know about this.”

“Honestly speaking, it’s really difficult for me to even look at the pictures on the internet,” he says. “I feel so helpless.”

Funeral rights

To avoid this, remains are usually “committed” to the mountain – that is, they are respectfully pushed into a crevasse or off a steep slope, out of sight. When possible, they might also be covered with rocks, forming a burial mound. But Dave Hahn, a mountain guide at RMI Expeditions who has reached Everest’s summit 15 times, emphasises “the time to move a body is when the accident happens.” Afterwards, “not to get grotesque, but they become attached to the hill.”

So many people go up Everest now that clean-up teams have to remove their rubbish (Credit: Getty Images)

But even for a fresh body, those respectful acts can take hours and require the effort of several fit climbers. The question remains of whose responsibility that task should fall to, especially as more bodies have built up over the years, and glacial melting due to climate change has caused others to appear.

Some have stepped up. Since 2008, Dawa Steven Sherpa, managing director of Asian Trekking and Ang Tshering’s son, and his colleagues have led yearly clean-up efforts on the mountain, removing more than 15,000kg of old garbage and more than 800kg of human waste. As such, whenever a body or body parts emerge from the melting, ever-dynamic Khumbu glacier, his team is seen as the de facto removal crew. So far, they have respectfully disposed of several bodies, four Sherpas – one of whom they knew – and one Australian climber who had disappeared in 1975. “If at all possible, human remains should get a burial,” Dawa Steven says. “That’s not always possible if a body is frozen into the slope at 8,000m, but we can at least cover it and give it some dignity so people don’t take pictures.”

A mother’s end

One particular story of a body’s recovery illustrates both the human cost, and the lengths that it can take to show the dead the proper respect.

Francys Distefano-Arsentiev died on Everest in 1998, and came to be known as “Sleeping Beauty”. Her son, Paul Distefano recalls just how distressing it was seeing photographs of his mother’s body online. “It’s like being really embarrassed, like being called on by your teacher but not knowing how to read. It’s horrible.”

In the 1970s, climbing Everest was less commercialised than it is today (Credit: Rex)

When he was 11, Paul’s mother, a world-class climber, had set her sights on becoming the first American woman to climb Everest without bottled oxygen. “I don’t know why she decided she had to do it without oxygen, but I think she felt like she needed to prove something,” Paul says. “I think she also felt invincible because she was with Sergei, my stepdad. His nickname was ‘the snow leopard’ because he was so agile.”

Francys reached her goal and made Everest history. But on her descent from the peak, something went wrong

The day before Francys left, she dropped by Paul’s school in Telluride, Colorado, and told him, “I’m going to leave this up to you.” In one of the most vivid memories he has, he remembers telling her, “If I tell you you can’t go, then at some point you’ll be an old lady in a rocking chair saying, ‘Dang, I should have done that.’ I don’t want to be the one to take that from you.”

That night, however, Paul had a nightmare: two mountaineers, a complete whiteout, snow surrounding them like attacking bees. When he woke up, he phoned his mother, telling her that he had changed his mind. “You know Paul,” she replied, “we talked yesterday, and you’re right: I have to do this.”

“I don’t think science can really explain why people want to climb these mountains,” he says. “In the end, the whole reason my mother climbed was because she had to.”

On May 22, 1998, Francys reached her goal and made Everest history. But on her descent from the peak, something went wrong. She and Sergei were forced to spend the night in the death zone and became separated. The following morning, Sergei suffered a fatal fall while attempting to rescue Francys, who had collapsed at around 8,850m (29,000ft). Climbers Ian Woodall and Cathy O’Dowd came across Francys at 05:00 and gave up their summit bid, staying with her for over an hour in subzero temperatures before they were forced to descend to ensure their own safety. Sometime later that morning, Francys succumbed to frostbite and exhaustion.

When Paul’s dad sat him down on a sunny afternoon and delivered the news, Paul felt like he had been hit with a sledgehammer. Yet he was hardly surprised. “To be honest, I already knew,” he says. “When someone that close to you dies, it’s strange and unexplainable, but you just know.”

Today, Paul harbors no resentment toward his mother. “I love her and wish she could be a part of my life, but she’s not,” he says. “Her death is certainly something I’ll always be dealing with, although in some ways it’s a blessing that my mom died doing what she loved.”

Some researchers think climbers attempt mountains like Everest to assert a sense of control over their lives they can't get from everyday life (Credit: Getty Images)

Years passed, and Francys remained on the mountain. But Woodall, who had stayed with her in her dying hours, had become haunted by his inability to save her and deeply bothered by the fact that her body had become a landmark.

In 2007, Woodall, with O’Dowd’s support, returned to Everest specifically to remove Francys’ body from sight. “It was an opportunity to say goodbye,” he says. “But most importantly, to get her out of sight.”

After one false start, Woodall and Phuri Sherpa, who usually works on Everest but who volunteered to help, hiked up to the spot where he remembered leaving Francys – a steep slope, set at about a 60-degree angle and covered by broken shale. The original plan was to create a rock cairn for her, but to Woodall’s dismay, he found the area buried in four feet of snow. “There was no sign of her at all, just a huge, unstable snow slope,” he says.

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, much harder than going to the summit – Ian Woodall

The two began to dig. Thanks to a mix of luck and memory, they found Francys on the second try. A rock grave was no longer an option, but they had just enough rope to lower her body over the mountain’s edge. After wrapping her stiff remains in an American flag and saying a few words, they sent her on her way – likely to the same place where Sergei lies. All told, it took them five hours. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, much harder than going to the summit,” Woodall says. “But I felt strongly enough about it to get off my backside and do something about it.”

Paul, however, only learned of this development through the media, and at first felt some resentment for not being informed. “I was like, ‘Dude, that’s my mom!’” Eventually, though, he realised that Woodall and O’Dowd, having witnessed the final moments of his mother’s life, had forged their own special connection with Francys. “My mother and I are bonded by blood, and Ian, Cathy and her are bonded by death,” he says. “I feel that they had just as much a right to move her as we did, and my family honours their effort.”

“I wish they had asked me, I do, but more so I wish to make a connection with them and meet them,” he continues. “Hopefully that time will come.”

The Ladakh region, where Tsewang Paljor originated from (Credit: Rachel Nuwer)

After reading about Woodall’s efforts to remove Francys’ body, Thinley contacted him about the possibility of doing the same for his brother Paljor. “What I find a bit odd is that Paljor was with a large Border Police team in ’96 but then they just packed up and went home and left him there,” Woodall says. “What’s more is, subsequently, the Indian Border Police has done other Everest expeditions and have gotten to the summit, but still left him there.”

The ITBP, however, says that Paljor’s body is hopelessly stuck, and that anyway, they can’t guarantee that it actually belongs to Paljor – or even to an Indian for that matter. “Some say it’s an ITBP body, some say it’s Indian and some say it’s a foreigner’s body,” says Deepak Pandey, an ITBP public relations officer in Delhi. “Our team saw it but we were not able to confirm if it’s our body or not.”

Accepting that he would get no help from the ITBP, Thinley offered to pay for Woodall’s mission to move Paljor, but had underestimated how much such a trip costs – in the $70,000 range. Woodall, meanwhile, had depleted his own funds in his effort to move Francys. “If I had the opportunity to go back, Paljor would be my number one priority,” he says. “But I really can’t afford to do it again on my own.”

“I just pray that my mom will never know about the Green Boots thing,” Thinley says. “She would be very, very, very upset. I can’t even imagine.”

Thinley had all but given up hope on putting his brother’s remains to rest. But last year, without warning, Paljor vanished.

Bright tents mark the human presence in what was once a wilderness (Credit: Getty Images)

Adventurer Noel Hanna made this discovery in May 2014, when he was surprised to find not only that Green Boots’ cave was devoid of its familiar resident, but also that many of the bodies on the north side – one stretch of which is sometimes referred to as “rainbow ridge,” for the colourful down suits of its many fallen climbers – seemed to have vanished. Hanna estimates that, previously, up to 10 bodies were visible on the push to the summit, but in 2014 he only counted two or three. “I would be 95% certain that [Paljor] has been moved or covered with stones,” Hanna says.

In keeping with Everest tradition, however, the circumstances surrounding the removal of the remains are not entirely clear. Hanna suspects that it could have been the Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association and the Chinese Mountaineering Association, which manage Everest’s north side. Five weeks prior to undertaking his climb, he had suggested to officials at a dinner that they move the bodies. “Apparently nobody had pointed that out to the person in charge before,” he says.

I asked Li Guowei, the deputy director of the foreign exchange department at the Chinese Mountaineering Association, for more details. He said that he was eager to provide answers to questions about the efforts, but that any media communications must be conducted through official channels. After more than a month of trying, however, he conceded that he did not think the request would receive approval from officials in Tibet any time in the near future.

“Their approach is very Chinese,” says Dawa Steven, who regularly works with them. “They don’t tell us what they’re doing and they don’t want the publicity.” The Chinese also do not like private teams to conduct their own clean-ups, he says. “From my perspective, it seems like it’s a matter of national pride.”

Relatives, however, do not seem to have been informed, as this news came as a surprise to Thinley. When I told him what I had heard, he paused for moment. “That’s a relief,” he finally said. “Thank you for telling me.”

Return to the mountain

Amid all the death, the pollution, the overcrowding and the increasingly questionable merit of reaching the summit, will people ever decide the mountain simply is not worth it anymore?

Not likely, if the past is anything to go on.

Just as the 1996 tragedy did nothing to quell people’s interest in Everest, the back-to-back horrors of the past two years seem to have had little effect. After the 2014 avalanche, many Sherpas vowed not to return to Everest until working conditions – including life insurance policies – were improved. For most, either out of economic necessity or choice, the sentiment to stay away from the mountain seems to have been short lived.

Ang Dorjee, for example, opted out of the 2015 season after losing three lifelong friends in the avalanche, but he now plans to return in 2016. “I was a bit scared, so I skipped the season,” he says. “But time passes, and I’ve been doing this all my life.”

“Nobody’s ok with what happened,” adds Dawa Steven. “The last few years have been very traumatising for a lot of the Sherpas.” But of the 63 Sherpas he has on payroll, none have tendered their resignation. “No one has said ‘I don’t want to climb anymore,’ although some have gotten pressure from their wives and parents to stop,” he says.

The last two years have brought such a huge loss of life that it’s become hard for me to continue to say my mountain is not about death

The same dynamic is playing out among Western guiding companies and leaders. Hahn has always defended Everest, but is now considering a break from the mountain. “I used to see the media stories that came out and they’d be only about death and destruction, and I’d say, ‘Well, my mountain is not about death,’” he says. “But the last two years have brought such a huge loss of life that it’s become hard for me to continue to make that argument.”

Yet Everest has a way of drawing people back in. Seven years ago, Mountain Madness, a company based in Seattle, suspended its guided climbs on Everest for an indefinite period of time, citing overcrowding and a surplus of inexperienced mountaineers. “We were trying to decide if we wanted to take a stance and say, ‘Hey, look, we just don't support what’s happening on Everest,’” says Mark Gunlogson, the company’s president. Next year, however, Mountain Madness plans to return. “It’s more due to client demand as opposed to us trying to get back into the game,” Gunlogson says.

“Everest hasn’t lost its mystique for me, or for many others who go back year after year,” Burke says. “Even having been there six times, I love climbing that mountain. I love going there. I’m almost addicted to it.”

For years to come – perhaps forever – Everest will no doubt continue to do what it has for decades: capture the imagination, provide the backdrop for dreams and personal triumphs, and take a few lives in the process. Green Boots may at last be at rest, but there is no guarantee that his cave will remain empty for long.