Explained: Unusual traditions after death on Mount Everest
In the death zone on Mount Everest beginning at 8,000 metres to the peak at 8,849 metres, many mountaineers risk their lives to scale the world’s tallest mountain.
In this zone, oxygen levels are a third of what is normal at sea level for proper human functioning and winds can reach speeds of up to 100km/h. Mountaineers are likely to experience altitude sickness, cardiac arrest and strokes, exhaustion, snow blindness and hypothermia or at risk of falls, avalanches and exposure. According to Climbing Kilimanjaro, a mountaineer can last between 16 to 20 hours in this zone without having a supply of oxygen, experts do not recommend staying any longer.
But to date, over 340 people have died on Mount Everest either in attempts to reach the peak or while in decent where exhaustion and the slightest misstep could lead to fatality. Upon death, a body could end up weighing over 136 kilogrammes after freezing; and this makes it difficult for them to be ferried down due to the nature of the mountain and the risks of decent involved.
These are some of the considerations that the family of the late Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui considered days ago when they decided that his body will remain on the mountain. He died tens of feet away from the peak of the mountain in late May 2024.
And so, hundreds of bodies remain frozen on Mount Everest. Some left where they fell and died while others are accorded some final respect in their resting places.
Nairobi News now looks at some of the unusual traditions carried out on Mount Everest once a person dies and the incident is reported to the Nepalese government and information shared with the Himalayan Database, a non-profit organisation.
“The Himalayan Database is a compilation of records for all expeditions that have climbed in the Nepal Himalaya. The database is based on the expedition archives of Elizabeth Hawley, a long time journalist based in Kathmandu, and it is supplemented by information gathered from books, alpine journals and correspondence with Himalayan climbers,” reads the description on the Himalayan Database official website.
Here are some of the unusual activities carried out after a mountaineer dies on the world’s tallest mountain.
- Some of the deceased may be tucked into crevasses or buried deep in the snow as a way of giving them the decency of a final resting place away from exposure and bodies being sun-bleached over time.
- Some of the deceased are ‘positioned’ in a plain sight (usually where they died) and their bodies or features about them are used as distance markers on the mountain for other climbers. Unfortunately, some deceased persons are stepped over by mountaineers as they ascend and descend.
- In a 2015 BBC report, one mountaineer was reported to have covered the face of a dead person so that birds would not peck out his eyes.
- Mountaineers who die on Mount Everest often leave wishes on the mountain over having thousands of dollars to have their bodies repatriated back home to their families. Some famous deceased persons can have locations named after them and the place they died including Green Boots Cave after the green boots worn by either Tsewang Paljor or his climbing partner, Dorje Morup.
- Some bodies are pushed off a steep slope off the beaten path to give the deceased some ‘respect’ in death where they don’t have to be ogled, photographed or stepped over by others on the mountain.
- Some bodies are covered with rocks to give it some dignity and marked as a burial mound. That’s because dead bodies end up gaining more ‘weight’ when they freeze.
- Some bodies are arranged to assume life-like positions such as sitting up against a rock and bundled up in warm clothing to rest. This allows mountaineers to not immediately realise the person is dead but rather stopped to catch their breath on their way to the summit.