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lower Mount Everest as the tallest
mountain in the world wedged between
Nepal on one side the 12th poorest
country in the world and the Tibet
Autonomous Region in China where there's
only an average of two people that
exists for every square kilometer
Everest is located in one of the most
remote and hard-to-get-to places on the
planet but its status as the tallest
mountain in the world has been
attracting climbers from all across the
world for a century now however Everest
has a dark secret right now as you're
watching this video there are over 300
dead bodies scattered across the
mountain many of which you will probably
see yourself if you ever attempt to make
the climb there isn't any other tourist
attraction in the world that's quite
like that you don't expect to see
corpses while at Disney World or the
Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef
or anywhere else for that matter but at
Everest it's just a given and yes
Everest is a tourist destination and
that's part of what's made it become so
dangerous you see in the entire decade
of the 1970s there were less than 600
attempts made to climb Everest
that's far fewer people than live in
Antarctica during the brutal winter
today for context 1,800 attempts were
made during the 1980s 2600 more attempts
during the 90s and then the rates
skyrocketed to over four thousand
attempts in the 2000s and nearly five
thousand attempts steering the 2010s
over eight times the number of attempts
that were made during the 1970s all of
this traffic has turned Everest into a
popular destination for wealthy tourists
in the middle of one of the most remote
places on the planet and the more that
people try and climb the more that some
will inevitably fail and become a new
permanent part of the mountains morbid
and growing collection of corpses the
last year where nobody died while trying
was all the way back in 1977
unlike other mass graves the bodies of
Everest victims are well preserved due
to the freezing environment trapped in
their clothing forever and permanently
frozen in their last moments like ghosts
stuck in
I'm the hundreds of bodies have been
left up there because bringing them down
is extremely dangerous and can and has
resulted in even more deaths perhaps the
most famous body on the mountain is a
man simply known as green boots named
after the bright green boots he was
wearing since his identity has never
been officially confirmed it's likely
that the body of green boots as that of
an Indian climber named soeng Kyle Shore
who disappeared on the mountain back in
1996 the body of green boots is visible
to everybody attempting to summit the
mountain from the north side even today
and if it is the body of pal Shore that
means that it's been resting there in
place for 23 years now but that's far
from the longest amount of time that a
body has remained up there for one of
the first men to ever attempt climbing
the mountain was George Mallory and his
climbing partner Andrew Irvine in 1924
they attempted to become the first
humans to ever reach Everest summit and
they were last seen alive a mere 800
vertical feet away from the top but they
were never seen or heard from again
that is until 75 years later in 1999
when an expedition discovered Mallory's
long-lost and very well preserved body
in one of the greatest ongoing mysteries
surrounding the mountain the discovery
of Mallory's body seventy-five years
later was unable to prove if he had ever
reached the summit or not 30 years
previously - when the first confirmed
humans did it in 1953 it's known that he
and Irvine were carrying a camera that
they would have used to photograph their
accomplishment had they've done it but
the camera wasn't located anywhere near
his body the body of Irvine however
remains undiscovered on the mountain to
this day the discovery of which could
change our understanding of history and
exploration forever if he was indeed
carrying that camera the first woman to
have ever died on the mountain was a
German in Hannelore shmutz back in 1979
during her descent after reaching the
summit
she grew exhausted after one of her
partners had frozen to death she lay
down to rest and simply never woke
acha her body remaining well-preserved
for decades afterwards like a haunting
ghost just nearby camp 4 on the mountain
her body was visible to everyone
attempting to summit from the south side
for decades afterwards attempts to
remove the corpse were met with disaster
when two men fell to their own deaths
while trained to recover at five years
later a norwegian mountaineer named our
nest junior who witnessed the body
described it like this it's not far now
I can't escape the sinister guard
approximately 100 metres above camp four
she sits leaning against her pack as if
taking a short break a woman with her
eyes wide open and her hair wavy with
each gust of wind it's the corpse of
Hannelore shmutz
the wife of the leader of a 1979 german
expedition she summited but died
descending yet it feels as if she
follows me with her eyes as I passed by
her presence reminds me that we are here
only on the conditions of the mountain
the wind did eventually blow her body
out of sight but others have still
remained one of the other most infamous
bodies is that of Francis arsentiev also
known as the sleeping beauty for her
very well preserved features she and her
husband Sergei successfully summoned to
the mountain back in 1998 but on their
way back down they became separated
after getting back to the camp and
realizing that she wasn't there
Sergei set back out to try and find her
meanwhile Francis was encountered by a
team of Uzbekistan suffering from oxygen
deprivation and frostbite so they gave
her their own oxygen and carried her
down as far as they could until their
own oxygen levels began getting
dangerously low if they continued with a
rescue effort they themselves might have
died as well so they were forced to
leave her behind alive and try and find
more help she died sometime later alone
while her husband's body was discovered
the next year after apparently having
suffered a fall her body remained
plainly visible in the open for nine
more years until 2007 after it was
successfully pushed away to a more
hidden area
but perhaps the most infamous body on
the mountain is that of David sharp he
was an Englishman who successfully made
it to the summit in 2006 but he did so
alone without a guide he didn't bring
enough supplementary oxygen bottles with
him and he didn't even bring a radio to
use for emergencies
he began his descent dangerously late in
the day and was still 80 500 meters up
when the night came he sought shelter in
a rock overhang near the body of green
boots when he ran out of oxygen and
began freezing during the next morning
as many as 40 people passed him by as he
was sitting there dying frozen and
unable to move and barely able to speak
but still horrifyingly conscious most
did nothing to help some tried what they
could but believed that he was too far
gone like arsentiev from earlier people
were afraid that helping him could have
put their own lives in danger as well he
died later that morning frozen in a
sitting down position many of the over
300 bodies located on the mountain are
used by climbers today as landmarks as
they make their way up towards the top a
dark and morbid reminder of how fragile
human life can actually be exploration
always can be dangerous now that you
know a lot about the darker side behind
the exploration of Everest you probably
want to learn more about another
dangerous chapter that's going on in
modern exploration our eventual return
to the moon luckily you could do so for
free by watching this great documentary
on curiosity stream called return to the
moon it's a curiosity stream original
documentary that you won't be able to
watch anywhere else and it offers a
unique glimpse into how we'll return to
the moon soon how will colonize it and
why we're doing this
curiosity stream meanwhile is of course
that awesome website where you can watch
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completely for free on pretty much any
device that you want best of all though
by going to curiosity stream comm slash
real life floor or by clicking the link
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they have 100% for free for an entire
month thank you so much for watching and
I'll see you again next week
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