Mount Everest...

Question
On Discovery Channel I saw a group of climbers walk by a dead body on Mt. Everest. The body was in full climbing gear and I was wondering if this happens often and why they just leave the bodies there? I would think this would be very difficult for the family to deal with?

Answer
Dear Darrell,

You must understand that the closest I've ever been to Everest is San Francisco.  I was once asked to join an Everest expedition as a support climber.  When I told my wife that it would cost me $15,000, I'd be gone for four months and there was a good chance that I'd die, you may well imagine what she said.  

The short answer to your question, however, is that climbers often die on Everest.  I've not kept up on the current statistics, but it used to be about one in twenty that would die from one of the several lethal dangers on the mountain.  Many of these dead are still on the mountain.  

Real climbers learn both the craft and ethics of mountain climbing.  Real climbers have respect and loyalty for each other.  Real climbers don't just leave the bodies there.   Real climbers bring fallen climbers down or, if that's too dangerous, bury them on the mountain.  

On Everest, this has sometimes not happened.  The environment toward the top is so alien and extreme that climbers' mental capacities are greatly diminished.  Also, different groups climb at the same time on the same route.  One may see a dead stranger.   These are still not good excuses for not caring for the dead, at least in my book.  The commercialization of climbing Everest has weakened mountain ethics, too.  A person who has paid $50,000 to get to the top is less likely to help someone who is in trouble.  That stinks.  

Sometimes, too, bodies are lost, swept away by avalanche.  A later quirk in the weather may reveal them.  These bodies are not usually recoverable.  

What you saw is not what is supposed to happen, but it's becoming more common.  I hope that this will change.  Mountaineering traditions are good ones.  You help the weakest before you think of your own summit.  

Robert Walton

P.S.  Here's a website you might check out for lots of other information:
http://www.everestnews.com/