The world’s highest peak, “Mount Everest (Qomolangma),” is a goal that all mountaineering enthusiasts love to challenge. There’s a local saying: “One can’t decide whether they’ll reach the summit—it’s up to Mount Everest.” Since the first human ascent in 1960, many who failed have been laid to rest here, and Everest can be described as littered with corpses.
There are still over 200 bodies on Everest today, serving as a stark warning to climbers. Near the summit, the bodies are piled up like a mountain. Most remains are well-preserved and have even become landmarks. For over 20 years, every climber ascending from the north side of Everest encounters this “body landmark”—on the mandatory route along the Northeast Ridge at 8,500 meters altitude, there’s a victim’s body lying in the snow inside a cave.
This victim was wearing a red down jacket, with both legs sticking out and green boots on his feet, which is why everyone calls him “Green Boots.” He has lain there quietly for 20 years. When the snow cover is thin, climbers are forced to step over his eye-catching fluorescent green boots. Noel Hannah, an explorer who summited seven times, once said, “Every climber, especially those ascending from the north side, knows about ‘Green Boots.’ About 80% of people stop to rest there—it’s almost impossible to miss him.”
It’s widely believed that this “Green Boots” is Tsewang Paljor, an Indian climber who died in 1996. They were caught in a rare and fierce blizzard that swept across the entire mountain. Paljor and two teammates perished that day, marking one of the darkest days in Everest climbing history, with a total of eight climbers losing their lives on both the north and south sides. Many wonder why the bodies aren’t retrieved or buried. Recovering bodies on Everest is no easy task—it requires significant cost and effort, often needing six to eight people, all of whom put their own lives at risk.
Altitudes above 8,000 meters are considered the “death zone” for humans. Not only is movement extremely difficult, but even breathing becomes a struggle, and sometimes clear thinking is nearly impossible. As climbers describe it, “You feel like you’re drunk.” A frozen corpse can weigh as much as 150 kilograms and must be dug out along with the surrounding ice before being transported down the mountain—an almost insurmountable challenge. This is why Everest is littered with bodies and why so many remain unrecovered.