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sounds_sound · 4547 days ago · link · · parent · post: Graphic: A chronicle of all of the lives claimed by Mount Everest
I just learned recently about all the bodies one can see as they climb Everest. I had never really considered it, but it makes sense. If you die up there, who would carry your body back down? No one. If anyone is curious about what this looks like, you can see and read a few stories here, but let me warn you that these images are NSFW and are pretty gruesome.
thenewgreen · 4547 days ago · link ·
My god, that's gruesome. Puts the danger in perspective, doesn't it? They mention that at one point one in four climbers that attempt to summit died. Pretty horrible odds.
The Nepalese consider Mount Everest sacred, and do not want it to become a graveyard. Many parents of those who have perished have asked for the bodies to be left as they were when they died, but this is against Nepalese law. As soon as a body can be reached for retrieval, it is and then is brought down for identification and burial. Those too high for retrieval will have stone tombs (called cairns) constructed around the corpses to shield them from the elements and the view of other climbers. A few corpses located on shallow ledges were rolled off to be buried in the snow below, away from the trail.