Everest – the cemetery of the dead: why do hundreds of climbers go to the “death zone” this spring?

“I thought I was in pretty good shape”

Trauma surgeon Dr. Jacob Weasel successfully scaled Everest last May after almost a year of preparation.

“I would put on a 23-kilogram backpack and climb stairs for two hours with no problem,” Mr. Weasel told CNN. “So I thought I was in pretty good shape.”

However, the surgeon quickly discovered that his physical condition was no match for the high level of athleticism required by Mount Everest.

“I would take five steps and it would take 30 seconds to a minute to catch my breath,” Weasel said of his struggle with oxygen deprivation while climbing Everest.

Mountaineers aspiring to the summit usually practice an “acclimatization rotation” to acclimate their lungs to the dwindling oxygen levels upon arrival in the mountains. In this process, climbers travel up to one of four designated Everest camps and spend one to four days there before returning down.

This routine is repeated at least twice to allow the body to adjust to the decreasing amount of oxygen. This increases the climber’s chances of survival and reaching the summit.

“If you took someone and just took them up to high camp on Everest, not even the top of the mountain, they would probably go into a coma within 10 to 15 minutes. And he would die within an hour, because the body would not have adapted to such a low oxygen level,” assured the doctor.

Although he has successfully scaled many mountains, including Kilimanjaro, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi and Aconcagua (the latter back in January of this year), he says none of them come close to Everest.

“Because no matter how well trained you are, once you reach the limits of what the human body can handle, it’s just going to be hard,” Weasel continued.

At the highest point of Everest, a person is almost incapable of staying alive. Most climbers use supplemental oxygen after reaching 7,000 meters. It is the lack of oxygen that poses one of the greatest threats to climbers who attempt to reach the summit. Oxygen levels drop to less than 40 percent when they reach Everest’s so-called “death zone.”

It’s hard to survive

The first target for climbers is Everest Base Camp, established at an altitude of approximately 5,182 meters. It takes about two weeks to reach it. Then you go up to the three remaining camps located along the mountain.

The fourth camp, the last one before the summit, is along the edge of the “death zone” at an altitude of about 7,925 meters. Here, climbers face extremely thin air, sub-zero temperatures and strong winds strong enough to blow a person off a mountain.

“It’s hard to survive there,” Weasel told CNN.

He shared his emotions when he had to pass the bodies of climbers who died on the mountain, which is not unusual. The bodies of the dead climbers are well preserved due to the severe cold. They are almost intact.

“I’m probably more familiar with death and loss of life than most people,” assured the surgeon. “For me, it was just a reminder of the seriousness of the situation and the fragility of life… More than that, it was a motivation to evaluate the opportunity.”

High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) is one of the most common ailments experienced by mountaineers while attempting to summit.

The bodies of the dead climbers are well preserved due to the severe cold. They are almost intact.

“The brain is experiencing oxygen starvation,” the doctor explained.

HACE causes swelling of the brain, drowsiness, difficulty speaking and thinking. This confusion is often accompanied by blurred vision and occasional episodes of delusions.

“I had auditory hallucinations when I heard my friends’ voices, which I thought were coming from behind,” Mr. Weasel recalled. – I saw hallucinations. I saw the faces of my children and my wife rising from the rocks.”

He recalled crossing paths with a friend, Orianne Aymard, who was stuck on the mountain due to an injury.

“I remember looking at her for five minutes and just saying, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I have spent over a decade of my life learning to help people as a surgeon. When you’re in a situation where someone needs your help and you can’t offer any… That feeling of helplessness was hard to deal with,” the medic told CNN.

The surgeon’s girlfriend survived. She was saved. Several broken bones of the foot were found, in addition, the woman’s hands were severely frostbitten. Despite all the injuries, O. Aymard is considered one of the lucky ones.

“Their bodies freeze to the mountain”

Everest has long been a graveyard for climbers who have succumbed to harsh conditions or met with disaster on the slopes of the mountain.

According to Alan Arnette, a climbing coach who climbed Everest in 2014, when a loved one or fellow climber is seriously injured or dies on the mountain, it is customary to leave them there if they cannot be rescued.

“What most people do out of respect for a dead climber is pull the body away so others can’t see it. And that’s only if you can. Sometimes it’s just not practical because of bad weather or because their bodies freeze up the mountain. So it is very difficult to move them”, said A. Arnette.

According to a mountaineer coach, the sight of a dead body on Everest is like witnessing a horrific car accident.

Everest has long been a graveyard for climbers.

“You don’t turn around and go home, you slow down respectfully…Or you say a prayer for that person and then you move on,” the coach assured.

It has been 10 years since one of the deadliest disasters on the world’s highest mountain, when 12 guides died in an avalanche.

And 2023 was recorded as a record year for deaths on the mountain. A total of 18 adventurers died.

The process of recovering dead bodies is sometimes impossible. Helicopter rescue and search missions are complicated by high altitude and treacherous weather conditions. Some rescuers even die trying to save others.

Watch the sunrise at an altitude of 8849 meters

The final climb of about 915 meters from the fourth camp to the summit can take 14 to 18 hours, so climbers usually leave the camp at night.

“The night was cold. It’s dark, the wind is blowing. However, in the morning, you make sure that it was worth it,” J. Weasel recalled.

“Watching the sunrise from a height of 8,849 meters and the projection of Everest’s shadow pyramid in the valley below you is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. It’s strange to stand there and know that everything else on the planet is below where you stand, the doctor assured. “I’ve never felt so small.” That mixture of humility and connection to something bigger than yourself is the right place from which to view our existence on this planet.”

Like Weasel, Coach Arnette also climbed to the top at sunrise and experienced the same feeling of “minority.” At the top were, he said, “more mountains than you can count.” A feeling of overwhelming gratitude came over me. At the same time, he knew he had to get down as quickly as possible.

Climbers spend 20 minutes to an hour on the summit and then begin their descent back to the base of the mountain.

An important goal

Before leaving for Nepal, Weasel was gifted an eagle feather as a symbol of his Indian heritage.

He was determined to pin the feather on the summit of Everest as a symbol of his people and what they had endured for the past few hundred years.

“It’s like proof that our spirit is not broken, that we can rise above the things that have happened to us. I remember planting that eagle feather on top of the world and feeling truly privileged to represent our people,” he added.

He decided to climb to the top of Everest precisely to become an example to the children of his tribe that everything is possible.

“Knowing how it is, personally, the only real justification for endangering your life and the lives of others is that you’re climbing for a cause that’s much bigger than yourself,” which outweighs the dangerous risks, Mr. Weasel revealed.

And A. Arnette tried to climb Everest three times before, until he finally successfully reached the top.

“During the first three attempts, I didn’t know why I was doing it,” the mountaineer coach admitted.

But when his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he took a different look at his climbing goal.

“I wanted to do it to raise money for Alzheimer’s disease and to honor my mother,” Arnette admitted.

According to him, about three hundred people have been issued permits by the Nepalese government to climb the mountain this year. This number is lower than in previous years.

“I think one of the reasons is that 18 people died last year. Everyone understands that Everest is a dangerous mountain,” assured A. Arnette.

But he doesn’t think that should deter climbers from attempting the summit.

“I really believe that when you climb these mountains, you come home a better version of yourself,” he told CNN. – Everest has become too commercialized: “you’re climbing over corpses” and “it’s littered with rubbish”. The reality is that there’s very little of it, but there’s also a lot of joy in people doing it and that’s why we climb mountains.”