Image source, Tsiring Jambu Sherpa
- author, Rama Parajuri
- role, BBC Nepali
Chiling Jambu Sherpa can’t forget the body he saw just a few metres from the summit of Mount Lhotse in the Himalayas more than a decade ago.
The Nepalese man was working as a guide for a German group of climbers attempting to summit the world’s fourth-highest mountain in May 2012 when they found a body blocking their path that was believed to be that of Milan Sedlacek, a Czech climber who had died a few days earlier.
Sherpa wondered why the Czech climber had died so close to the summit: his frozen body was missing one of his gloves.
“Without his hands he could have slipped off the rope,” the guide said, “losing his balance and hitting a rock, possibly killing him.”
The body remained in place and all subsequent climbers ascending Lhotse had to walk past it.
Little did the 46-year-old Sherpa know that 12 years later he would be returning to the Himalayas as part of a team of 12 soldiers and 18 Sherpas sent by the Nepalese army to clean up the mountains and help retrieve the bodies of climbers.
More than 300 people have died in the Everest region since records began a century ago, and many of their bodies remain there. The death toll is rising, with eight people killed so far this year and 18 expected to die in 2023, according to the Nepal Tourism Board.
The government first launched a cleanup operation in 2019 to remove some of the bodies of climbers who died, but this year was the first time authorities set a goal of retrieving five bodies from the so-called “death zone,” above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) above sea level.
Eventually, the team, surviving on water, chocolate and sattu – a mix of chickpeas, barley and wheat flour – managed to recover the four bodies.
After 54 days of work that ended on June 5, one skeleton and 11 tonnes of rubbish had been removed from the low-lying area.
“Nepal is notorious for the rubbish and dead bodies that have severely polluted the Himalayas,” Major Aditya Karki, leader of this year’s operation, told BBC Nepali.
The campaign also aims to improve climber safety.
Major Karki said many people were shocked to see the bodies – one climber on Everest last year was so shocked he was paralysed for 30 minutes after coming across them.
Image source, Tsiring Jambu Sherpa
Cost and difficulty
Many people cannot afford to retrieve the bodies of their relatives who died in the mountains of Nepal, and even if they could, most private companies refuse to help retrieve bodies from the death zone, saying it is too dangerous.
The army has allocated 5 million rupees ($37,400, £29,000) to salvage one body this year. It takes 12 people to lower a body from 8,000 metres, with each person needing four oxygen cylinders. At more than $400 a cylinder, that adds up to $20,000 for the oxygen alone.
Each year, wind speeds slow down during the wind cycle, leaving climbers with only around 15 days to climb up and down from 8,000 metres. Wind speeds of over 100 kilometres per hour are not uncommon in the Death Zone.
After finding the body, the team mostly worked after dark to avoid disturbing other climbers. The Everest region, which includes Lhotse and Nuptse, has only one ladder and cableway that people use to get up and down from base camp.
“Bringing the bodies back from the death zone was extremely difficult,” Sherpa said. “They vomited acid water repeatedly. Some had constant coughs and headaches after spending hours at high altitude.”
At 8,000 metres, even the strongest Sherpas can carry only 25 kg (55 lbs), less than 30% of their capacity at lower altitudes.
Image source, Tsiring Jambu Sherpa
The body, found near the summit of the 8,516-metre (28,000-foot) Lhotse mountain, was discoloured by 12 years of exposure to sun and snow and was half buried in snow, Sherpa said.
The bodies of the four climbers were found in the same position they were in when they died, and because they were frozen they were unable to move their limbs, making transportation even more difficult.
Nepalese law stipulates that all bodies must be kept in the best possible condition before being returned to authorities, and any damage can lead to penalties.
Pushing the bodies from behind or pulling them from the front was not possible, so the clean-up team set up a system to gradually lower the bodies using ropes – sometimes the bodies got stuck in the rocky, icy ground, making it painstaking to pull them out again.
Sherpa said it took 24 hours non-stop to carry the body, believed to be that of a Czech climber, to the nearest camp, about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away, before the team took another 13 hours to carry it to another camp for descent.
The body’s next destination was to fly by helicopter to Kathmandu, but bad weather left the crew stranded in the town of Namche for five days. They reached the capital safely on June 4.
identification
The bodies and skeletons of the four are being kept at a hospital in Kathmandu.
The military found identification documents on the bodies of Czech climber Milan Sedlacek and American climber Ronald Yearwood, who died in 2017. The Nepalese government plans to contact their respective embassies.
Work is still underway to identify the remaining two bodies.
Sherpa climbers and guides have been documenting the locations and identities of missing climbers and providing potential leads on some of the bodies, all of which they believe to be foreigners, a claim the government denies.
About 100 Sherpas have died in the Himalayas since records began, leaving many families waiting years to perform final Buddhist rites for their loved ones.
Authorities have said that if the bodies remain unclaimed three months after identification, they will be buried regardless of whether they are foreign or Nepali.
Sherpa first climbed the Himalayas at the age of 20. He has since climbed Everest three times and Lhotse five times.
“Mountiers became famous for mountaineering. The Himalayas have given us a lot of opportunities,” he says.
“By undertaking this special task of retrieving the bodies, I have to give back to the great Himalayas.”
