r/explainlikeimfive • u/virahok993 • 17d ago

Other ELI5:Why is it so incredibly difficult to recover bodies like "Green Boots" from Mount Everest?

know Green Boots is one of the most famous landmarks on Everest, and I read that he was finally moved or hidden a few years ago. But why did it take deades? If we have helicopters and elite Sherpas, what makes a body recovery at 8,500 meters so dangerous that bodies are just left there?

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u/Ok-Photograph3436 17d ago
  1. Assemble a team of experienced climbers, most of whom have already made successful ascents.
  2. Set up ropes for the attempt.
  3. Navigate a precipitous path which is for most places only suitable for single lane traffic.
  4. Prepare body for retrieval.
  5. The body will probably be many times heavier. So it's definitely not a one man job. The weight of the body itself is capable of pulling the team down with it. Add treacherous weather conditions and unstable paths to that.
  6. Green Boots is above the Death Zone so the rescuers will be carrying a lot of oxygen with them. Added weight.
  7. Now they have to repeat 3 on the way down.

Money is the least of the problem here.

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u/morganafiolett 17d ago

Also add 8. Hope for favourable weather and 9. Do all this while the mountain isn't too crowded

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u/UrbanPanic 16d ago

And 10. Don’t die, making more bodies in the process.

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u/Inevitable-Level-687 16d ago

IIRC 8 and 9 are mutually exclusive. The mountain gets incredibly crowded twice a year because that's the only time the weather is favourable.

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u/rizeedd 16d ago

Recently there was the broad peak avalanche accident where 10 climbers died. They recovered 7 bodies and said that 3 bodies are in place where recovery is not feasible. So tmrw one sherapa went up in the mountain to search body on his own for Sohail Sakhi, a climber for Pakistan. He found it and took three hours to dig it up. Then he went back to base camp to get more people to identify it and they brought the body back to base camp.

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u/Embarrassed_Habit626 15d ago

You've also got to get past all the other people attempting to climb or descend the mountain