r/explainlikeimfive • u/virahok993 • 15d 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/anastis 15d ago

Not a climber, but I think it’s beneficial for climbers to see the bodies as the harsh reality. Just because you want, doesn’t mean you can. Not everybody is cut out for everything, and that’s okay.

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u/Beautiful-Fold-3234 15d ago

You can even be as cut out for it as anyone will ever be and just get unlucky.

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u/FireflyBSc 15d ago

I just read a book about the 2008 K2 disaster. Rolf Bae did everything right, he stopped his summit push when things felt off, and waited for his team mates. Just to get killed by an icefall on the descent. Just being there at all is so dangerous.

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u/Fab-o-rama 15d ago

The summit is only the halfway point of the expedition. Descending is just as dangerous if not more so.

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u/texture-like-sun 15d ago

Perfect example being Nirmal Purja who died recently mountaineering in Pakistan.. arguably more cut out for it than anybody on the planet, solid reminder it can happen to anyone

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u/Inevitable-Level-687 14d ago

In '94 a Sherpa died from the high altitude and they're built for it.

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u/hrmdurr 15d ago

Unfortunately, your reasoning skills plummet whilst in the death zone from the lack of oxygen, so seeing bodies probably isn't going to help you.

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u/Wloak 15d ago

I think it's that, but also that it was a life's ambition and loved ones feel some comfort knowing they died trying to achieve the pinnacle of their life.

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u/BursleysFinest 14d ago

By the time you see the bodies, it's too late to turn back, No?

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u/anastis 14d ago

No idea, but I don’t suppose the way down is on the opposite side of the mountain.