Everest: Bodies of fallen climbers recovered from ‘death zone’

Tshering Jangpo Sherpa can’t forget the body he saw just metres from the summit of Mount Lhotse in the Himalayas more than a decade ago.

The Nepali was working as a guide for a German climber trying to climb the world’s fourth-highest mountain in May 2012. The body blocking their path was believed to be Milan Sedlacek, the Czech mountaineer who had died a few days earlier.

Mr. Sherpa was curious to know why the Czech climber had died so close to the summit. One of the gloves that had been on the frozen body was missing.

“His bare hand probably slipped off the rope, and he probably died after losing his balance and hitting the rock,” the guide says.

The body remained in place – and every climber who climbed Lhotse after that had to step over it.

Mr Sherpa, 46, had no idea then that he would be returning 12 years later to recover the climber’s body, as part of a team of 12 military personnel and 18 Sherpas deployed by the Nepalese army to clear the high Himalayas.

More than 300 deaths have occurred in the Everest region since climbing records began a century ago, and many of those bodies still remain. The death toll continues to rise: Eight people have been killed so far this year; 18 have died in 2023, according to Nepal’s tourism department.

The government first launched the cleanup campaign in 2019, which included removing some bodies of dead climbers. But this year was the first time authorities set a goal of recovering five bodies from the so-called “death zone,” above 8,000 metres (26,247 feet).

In the end, the team – which relied on water, chocolate and satu (a mixture of chickpea flour, barley and wheat) – was able to recover four bodies.

A skeleton and 11 tons of rubbish were removed from low altitudes after a 54-day operation that ended on June 5.

“Nepal has gained a bad reputation for garbage and dead bodies that pollute the Himalayas on a dangerous scale,” Major Aditya Karki, commander of this year’s operation, told BBC Nepal.

The campaign also aims to improve safety for climbers.

Major Karki says many are shocked to see the bodies – last year, a climber was unable to move for half an hour after seeing a body on his way up Mount Everest.

Many people cannot afford to recover the bodies of their relatives who died in the mountains of Nepal. Even if they can afford it, most private companies refuse to help recover bodies from the death zone because it is too dangerous.

The military has set aside five million rupees ($37,400; £29,000) this year to retrieve each body. It takes 12 people to lower a body from a height of 8,000 metres, and each of them needs four cylinders of oxygen. A cylinder costs more than $400, so the oxygen alone costs $20,000.

Each year, there is only a window of about 15 days during which climbers can ascend and descend from an altitude of 8,000 meters, because the wind slows down during the transition between wind cycles. In the Death Zone, wind speeds often exceed 100 kilometers per hour.

After locating the bodies, the team mostly worked after dark because they did not want to disturb other climbers. In the Everest region, which also consists of Mount Lhotse and Mount Nuptse, there is only one ladder and one rope for people ascending and descending from base camp.

“It was very difficult to bring the bodies back from the death zone. I vomited acidic water several times. Others kept coughing and others had headaches because we spent hours and hours at very high altitudes,” Sherpa says.

At 8,000 meters, even the strongest Sherpas can only carry 25 kilograms (55 pounds), less than 30% of what they can carry at lower altitudes.