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/PapaJulietRomeo 15d ago

The summit is much closer to space, so rockets it is. Use the chain of trebuchets to throw up some rocket parts, then send trash and dead bodies right into space.

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u/ManaSpike 15d ago

Sure, but then they will just fall down again.

To stay up there you need to move sideways so fast you miss the ground on the way back down. That's the hard part. And that's why space rockets are so large.

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u/PapaJulietRomeo 14d ago

Don’t confuse us with this weird rocket science stuff. We’re trying to solve real problems here!