Mt. Everest, The Death Zone, & Dead Bodies: Summit the Mountain or Die Trying

Over 150 dead bodies lie preserved in the snow on Mt. Everest, serving as permanent reminders of the respect the mountain demands from anyone breaching her peak.

Standing on top of the world. That’s how climbers feel after summiting Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world standing 29,029 feet above sea level. The summit is the closest anyone can get to the top of the world.

A Dream Come True

Over 4,000 people have ascended Mt. Everest since 1953 when Sherpa Tenzing Norgay led Edmund Hilary to the peak, becoming the first two people to ever reach the top. Norgay climbed the mountain without supplementary oxygen tanks, making the accomplishment even more prideful.

Climbers endure weeks of horrendous conditions and put their bodies through extreme conditions for a shot at ascending to the top of Everest. Many do not make it back down the mountain alive, whether they die from the frigid temperatures, health, and medical conditions, or as most climbers, from accidents.

The elevation of the mountain makes recovery of the dead bodies risky and very difficult. As such, many bodies remain on the mountain, used by climbers to determine how close they are to the summit.