There are several reasons why those who died on Everest are not always taken away.
Reason one: technical complexity
There are several ways to climb any mountain. Everest is the highest mountain in the world, 8848 meters above sea level, located on the border of two states: Nepal and China. From the side of Nepal, the most unpleasant section is located at the bottom - if only the starting height of 5300 can be called "bottom". This is the Khumbu Icefall: a gigantic "stream" of huge blocks of ice. The path runs through cracks of many meters depth along the stairs, laid instead of bridges. The width of the ladder is exactly equal to the boot in the "cat" - a device for walking on ice. If the victim is from the side of Nepal, it is unthinkable to evacuate him through this segment on his hands. The classic climbing route passes through the spur of Everest - the eight-thousandth Lhotse ridge. There are 7 high-altitude camps along the way, many of them are just ledges, on the edge of which tents are molded. There are many dead here …
In 1997, on Lhotse, a member of the Russian expedition, Vladimir Bashkirov, developed heart problems from overloads. The group consisted of professional climbers, they correctly assessed the situation and went down. But this did not help: Vladimir Bashkirov died. They put him in a sleeping bag and hung him on a rock. A memorial plaque was erected in his honor at one of the passes.
If you wish, you can evacuate the body, but this requires an agreement with the pilots regarding non-stop loading, since there is nowhere for the helicopter to land. Such was the case in the spring of 2014, when an avalanche descended on a group of Sherpas who were laying the route. 16 people died. Those who were found were taken out by helicopter, putting the bodies in sleeping bags. The wounded were also evacuated.
Reason two: the deceased is in an inaccessible place
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The Himalayas are a vertical world. Here, if a person falls off, he flies hundreds of meters, often with a lot of snow or stones. Himalayan avalanches have incredible power and volume. Snow from friction begins to melt. A person caught by an avalanche should, if possible, make swimming movements, then he has a chance to stay on the surface. If there is at least ten centimeters of snow left above it, it is doomed. An avalanche, stopping, freezes in seconds, forming an incredibly dense ice crust. In the same 1997, on Annapurna, professional climbers Anatoly Bukreev and Simone Moro, together with the operator Dmitry Sobolev, were hit by an avalanche. Moreau dragged about a kilometer to the base camp, he was injured, but survived. Boukreev and Sobolev have not been found. A tablet dedicated to them is on another pass …
Reason three: death zone
According to the rules of climbers, everything above 6,000 above sea level is a death zone. Here the principle “every man for himself” works. From here, even a victim or a dying person, most often, no one will undertake to pull out. Every breath, every movement is too hard. A slight overload or imbalance on a narrow ridge - and the savior himself will be in the role of the victim. Although more often than not, in order to save a person, it is enough just to help him descend to the height to which he already has acclimatization. In 2013, a tourist from one of the largest and most respectable Moscow travel companies died on Everest at an altitude of 6,000 meters. He moaned and suffered all night, and by morning he was gone.
The opposite example - or rather, an unprecedented situation, occurred in 2007 in China. A pair of climbers: Russian guide Maxim Bogatyrev with an American tourist named Anthony Piva went to the 7000-meter Muztag-Ata. Already near the summit, they saw a tent covered with snow, from which someone was waving a mountain stick to them. The snow was waist-deep and it was hellishly difficult to dig a trench. There were three completely exhausted Koreans in the tent. They ran out of gas, and they could neither melt snow for themselves, nor cook food. They even went to the toilet for themselves. Bogatyryov tied them right in the sleeping bag and dragged them down, one by one, to the base camp. Anthony walked in front and traced the road in the snow. Even once to climb from 4000 meters to 7000 is a huge load, but here it was necessary as many as three.
Reason four: high cost
Rent of a helicopter is about 5000 US dollars. Plus - the difficulty: landing is likely to be impossible, respectively, someone, and not alone, must rise, find the body, drag it to the place where the helicopter can safely hover, and organize loading. Moreover, no one will be able to guarantee the success of the enterprise: at the last moment, the pilot may discover the risk of snagging the rock with screws, or there will be problems with extracting the body, or suddenly the weather will deteriorate and the whole operation will have to be curtailed. Even with a favorable set of circumstances, the evacuation will come out in the region of 15-18 thousand dollars - not counting other costs, such as international flights and air transportation of the body with transfers. Since direct flights to Kathmandu are only in Asia.
Reason five: fiddling with inquiries
Let's add: international fuss. Much will depend on the level of dishonesty of the insurance company. It is necessary to prove that the person is dead and remained on the mountain. If he bought a tour from a company - take a certificate of the death of a tourist from this company, and she will not be interested in giving such evidence against herself. Collect documents at home. Check with the embassy of Nepal or China: depending on which side of Everest is being discussed. Find a translator: Chinese is okay, but Nepali is difficult and rare. Any inaccuracy in the translation will have to start all over again.
Obtain airline consent. Certificates from one country must be valid in another. All this through translators and notaries.
Theoretically, it is possible to cremate a body on the spot, but in fact in China everything will be stuck trying to prove that this is not the destruction of evidence, and in Kathmandu the crematorium is in the open air, and the ashes are dumped into the Bagmati River.
Reason six: body condition
The high-altitude Himalayas have very dry air. The body dries quickly, mummifies. It will hardly be possible to deliver it in its entirety. Yes, and to see what a loved one has become, probably, few people want to. This does not require a European mentality.
Reason seven: he would like to stay there
We are talking about people who climbed on foot to the flight altitude of long-range aviation, met sunrises on the way to the top, and lost friends in this snowy world. It is difficult to imagine their spirit trapped between the numerous graves of a quiet cemetery or in a columbarium cell.
And against the background of all of the above, this is a very weighty argument.
Galina Pogodin