200 Frozen bodies along the path to Everest’s peak

There are approximately 200 frozen bodies in line path to the summit of Mount Everest, some as old as 50 years. Many of them are given names like “Green Boots” and are recognizable landmarks. They can’t be recovered because helicopters can’t function safely at that altitude.

Mountain climber Rodney Hogg made a grisly discovery on his route to the 29,000-foot peak of Mt. Everest when he spotted the frozen body of his close friend, Peter Kinloch — a 28-year-old from Scotland who died of frostbite and exhaustion scaling the same path just months before.  Hog told Great Britain’s Mirror: “He was just lying there, his body preserved immaculately by the ice. When I saw him I instantly knew it was Peter. You could see his face. It was just like he was lying on his back taking a rest.”

Kinloch was an IT expert who was attempting the “Seven Summits Challenge” to climb the highest peak on each continent. He made it to the top of Everest, the highest of all, last June, when bad weather set in on his descent. Despite the best efforts of his Sherpa guides, he died.

Before embarking on his own climb, Kinloch’s parents asked Hogg to retrieve their son’s camera if he should find him. Sadly, Kinloch’s  body was out of reach.

“The Sherpas did everything they could. Before he died, they clipped Peter to a fixed line on the mountain side, so his body is likely to remain up there forever unless it’s cut free.”

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Everest was formed about 60 million years ago

Name in Nepalese: Sagarmatha (meaning Goddess of the Sky)

Named After: Sir George Everest, the British Surveyor General of India from 1830-1843.

Everest was previously known as Peak b and subsequently peak XV

Height:

Base Camp: 5,360m. Camp 1: 6,100m. Camp 2: 6,600m. Camp 3: 7,200. Camp 4: 7,926m. Summit: 8,848m or 29,029ft

 

First Ascent: May 29, 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary, via the South Col Route

Mt. Everest rises a few milimeters each year due to geological forces

Fastest Ascent: 8 hours 10 minutes from base camp – Sherpa Pemba Dorje, May 2004

Fastest Descent: In 1988, Jean-Marc Boivin of France descended from the top in just 11 minutes, paragliding.

First ski descent: Davo Karnicar (Slovenia) 10th July 2000

Mount Everest (Tibetan: Jomolungma, “Holy Mother”, Mandarin: Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng, “Jomolungma Peak”; is the world’s highest mountain at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level. Everest is in the Mahalangur section of the Himalaya on the Nepal-China (Tibet) border. Its massif includes neighboring peaks Lhotse (8516m), Nuptse (7855m), and Changtse (7580m).

In 1856, the Great Trigonometric Survey of British India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at 29,002 ft (8,840 m). In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon recommendation of Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India at the time, who named it after his predecessor in the post, and former chief, Sir George Everest. Chomolungma had been in common use by Tibetans for centuries, but Waugh was unable to propose an established local name because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners.

The highest mountain in the world attracts many well-experienced mountaineers as well as novice climbers who are willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. The mountain, while not posing substantial technical climbing difficulty on the standard route (other eight-thousanders such as K2 or Nanga Parbat are much more difficult), still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather, and wind.

By the end of the 2008 climbing season, there had been 4,102 ascents to the summit by about 2,700 individuals.Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to US$25,000 per person. By the end of 2009 Everest had claimed 216 lives, including eight who perished during a 1996 storm high on the mountain. Conditions are so difficult in the death zone—altitudes higher than 8,000 metres (26,000 ft)—that most corpses have been left where they fell. Some of them are visible from standard climbing routes.