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By Rama Parajuli, BBC Nepali

Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa

The clean-up team removed four bodies from the Himalayas in this year’s operation

Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa cannot forget the dead body he saw just meters from the summit of Mount Lhotse in the Himalayas more than a decade ago.

The Nepali was working as a guide for a German climber attempting to ascend the world’s fourth highest mountain in May 2012. The body blocking their path was presumed to be that of Milan Sedlacek, a Czech climber who had died just days earlier.

Mr. Sherpa wondered why the Czech climber had perished so near the peak. One glove was missing from the frozen body.

“The bare hand might have slipped away from the rope,” he said. “He could have lost his balance and crashed onto the rock.”

The body remained there, forcing climbers ascending Mount Lhotse to step around it.

Mr. Sherpa, now 46, had no notion back then that he would return 12 years later to retrieve the climber’s body as part of a Nepali army team of 30, comprising military personnel and sherpas, to clean up the high Himalayas.

Over 300 deaths have been recorded in the Everest region since climbing records started a century ago, with many bodies still there. Eight people have already perished this year, and 18 died in 2023, according to Nepal’s tourism department.

In 2019, the government launched a clean-up campaign which this year aimed to retrieve five bodies from the “death zone” above 8,000m (26,247 feet).

The team, subsisting on water, chocolate, and sattu (a flour mixture), retrieved four bodies and removed a skeleton and 11 tonnes of rubbish over 54 days, concluding on 5 June.

“Nepal has earned a bad reputation for the garbage and dead bodies littering the Himalayas,” Major Aditya Karki, the clean-up operation leader, told BBC Nepali.

The campaign also seeks to improve climbers’ safety. Maj Karki says many have been shocked by the sight of dead bodies; last year, one mountaineer was immobilized for half an hour after witnessing a corpse on the climb to Everest.

Cost and Difficulties

Retrieving bodies from Nepal’s mountains is often financially prohibitive for many families. Even when affordable, most private companies decline to recover bodies from the death zone due to the extreme danger.

The military allocated five million rupees ($37,400; £29,000) per body this year. Lowering a body from 8,000m requires twelve people, each needing four oxygen cylinders, costing over $400 each. So, oxygen alone costs around $20,000.

Each year, climbers have roughly a 15-day window to ascend and descend from 8,000m as the winds transition. Winds in the death zone often exceed 100 km/h.

The team worked mostly at night to avoid disturbing other mountaineers since only a single ladder and ropeway link ascending and descending climbers in the Everest region.

“Bringing the bodies back from the death zone was very tough,” Mr. Sherpa stated. “I vomited sour water multiple times, and others suffered headaches or coughed due to the high altitude.”

At 8,000m, even strong sherpas can carry only up to 25kg (55 pounds), less than 30% of what they can at lower altitudes.

The body near Mount Lhotse’s summit (8,516m) was discolored from sun and snow exposure for 12 years. Half was buried in snow, according to Mr. Sherpa.

All four bodies were found in their death positions, their frozen state making limb movement impossible and transport challenging.

Nepali law mandates that returned bodies must remain in the best condition possible, with penalties for any damage.

The clean-up team used a roping system to gradually lower the bodies as pushing or pulling was unfeasible. Sometimes, bodies got stuck, requiring laborious efforts to free them.

Moving the presumed Czech climber’s body 3.5km to the nearest camp took 24 non-stop hours, followed by another 13 hours to reach a lower camp.

From there, the bodies were flown to Kathmandu by helicopter, arriving safely on 4 June after a five-day weather delay in Namche.

Identification

The four bodies and the skeleton are now at a Kathmandu hospital.

Identification documents were found on two bodies – Czech climber Milan Sedlacek and American mountaineer Ronald Yearwood, who died in 2017. The Nepali government is coordinating with respective embassies.

The identification of the remaining two bodies continues.

Sherpa guides and climbers often keep track of missing climbers’ locations and identities, believing the bodies are of foreigners, though the government hasn’t confirmed this.

Around 100 sherpas have died in the Himalayas since records began, leaving many families awaiting the chance to perform last rites for their loved ones.

If unclaimed three months after identification, the bodies will be buried, whether they are Nepali or foreign.

Mr. Sherpa began climbing in the Himalayas at age 20, having summited Everest three times and Lhotse five times in his career.

“Mountaineers have gained fame from climbing. The Himalayas have offered us many opportunities,” he said.

“By retrieving dead bodies, it’s my time to give back to the Great Himalayas.”

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