Pod Insights Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings and Mysteries 151. Mount Everest Horror: The Lost Climbers of the Death Zone About this episode Last year, a group of adventurers with National Geographic were hiking Mount Everest when they saw a human foot sticking out of the ice. Now, it is not rare to see dead bodies on the mountain, there are at least 200 of them scattered around Everest, and many of them act as markers for trails, frozen forever in time where they fell
But this human foot in particular, had been on the mountain for 100 years and solved a century old mystery…
Show Notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/mounteverestbodies
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2:02 Kaelyn Moore? Last year, a group of adventurers with National Geographic were hiking Mount Everest when they saw a human foot sticking out of the ice. Now, it is not rare to see dead bodies on the mountain. There's at least 200 of them scattered around Everest, and many of them act as markers for the trails, frozen forever in time where they fell. But this human foot in particular had been on the mountain for 100 years and solved a century-old mystery. Welcome back to Heart Starts Pounding. I'm your host, Kayla Moore, and today it feels so good to be here inside of the Rogue Detecting Society headquarters and not out on a mountain. Because today, we're going to be talking about the bodies that are still stuck on Mount Everest,
2:45 Kaelyn Moore? who they belong to, and the mystery that was solved when a 100-year-old foot was found. Just a reminder, if you like true crime cases that read like Gothic horror, mysteries that will keep you up at night, and let me check my notes here. Reading about tragedy that happens on a completely optional hiking expedition, you're in the right place because you are just like me. Wherever you are, make sure you follow along. Leave a comment, subscribe, all of that good stuff. Now typically, I like to shout out listeners here, but I want to ask you a question today. Would any of you ever hike Mount Everest? Or if you have, please let me know, because after reading so much about this, I must hear from someone in this community about their experience.
3:28 Kaelyn Moore? I personally would never hike Mount Everest. I even get anxiety when I look at pictures of the mountain. But I am deeply curious about the types of people that choose to make this hike. And so today in our episode, I also want to explore some of the motivations behind why these people do this extremely dangerous and totally optional feat that many of us find so unappealing. Okay, let's get into it. Mount Everest, located on the China Nepal border nestled in the Himalayas, is the tallest mountain in the world above sea level, coming in at around 29,000 feet, or 8,800 meters. That's right around cruising altitude for a plane. Climbing Mount Everest, and I cannot stress this enough, you guys,
4:09 Kaelyn Moore? is an incredibly expensive endeavor. We're talking about $50,000 minimum, if you want to get to the top, and a lot of people spend far more money than that. Among some of the most expensive things you need to complete the hike are at least $3,000 worth of oxygen, a $3,000 round trip plane ticket to Kathmandu, Nepal, and $30,000 for a permit and guide package. And honestly, that's the cheap option. There's some very wealthy people that will pay Western guides a million dollars or more to make sure that they have every amenity available to them on the mountain. I mean, I found this one company called Fertinbach Expeditions that
4:50 Kaelyn Moore? has a package at 200,000 euros, starting, that gets you up and down the mountain in just three weeks. It includes a private luxury tent, VIP travel accommodations, and they'll even make you a personal documentary of your climb. And that's just the reality of this mountain. While there are people who make it their life's mission to summit Everest, they save up for years for the chance to be able to climb. A recent criticism of the mountain is that it's become another extreme endeavor for the uber-rich. Honestly, kind of like the Titan Submersible, where some people feel like they can just pay whatever to get them to the top. But what a lot of those people find out is that being rich is not going to make you physically fit enough to survive, once
5:34 Kaelyn Moore? you're there. And that is where accidents happen. And that kind of brings me to the first body I want to tell you about, a woman named Hanalur Schmots. For years, starting in 1979, as hikers got to 27,200 feet going up the southern route of the mountain, that's the route that 98% of hikers choose, a woman could be seen sitting in place, completely frozen. She was leaning against her backpack with her eyes closed, and her hair was gently swaying in the wind. This is Hanalur Schmots, and according to hikers that saw her, she looked like she could have just stood up and walked the few hundred feet back to the safety of her camp.
6:15 Kaelyn Moore? But she died in a very preventable accident and her body sat on the mountain, frozen and alone for years. Hanalur was a 39-year-old German mountaineer who wanted to become the fourth woman to ever summit Mount Everest. By October 2nd, 1979, she had made it through the arduous climb towards the summit. That's two to three weeks acclimatizing to the altitude at a base camp at around 17,000 feet, where her body started getting used to the lack of oxygen. There, she would have checked her equipment, she would have undergone some medical evaluations to make sure that she was physically fit. She may have even gotten a blessing from a monk. And then she would have made the very arduous three to four day hike to Camp Four, which
6:59 Kaelyn Moore? sits at 26,000 feet on the mountain. And there, she would have started her final push to the top the morning of October 2nd. The previous day, her husband, Gerhard Schmots, became the oldest man to summit the mountain at 50 years old. And Hanalur initially didn't know if she was going to actually try for the top of Everest, but after watching her husband do it, she decided that she was going to go for it. With her, she had an American climber named Ray Jeanet and two Sherpa guides named Sung Der and Ang Jambu. Her husband was not going to be joining her, so she radioed him back down at camp and said that she would see him when she made it back. But his voice sounded concerned when he replied,
7:43 Kaelyn Moore? "The weather is turning, maybe you should wait," he said. But Hanalur was in what's known as the death zone of Mount Everest, the area above 26,000 feet. And when you're there, you are quite literally dying every single moment. The air doesn't have enough oxygen in it to replenish your blood, so you need to rely on tanks of oxygen to supply you. And even then, you have about 20 hours in the zone before you're dead. Waiting does not exist in the death zone. You either push to the summit or you turn back to safety. Hanalur felt like this was going to be her only chance, so she decided that she was going to press on.
8:26 Kaelyn Moore? By 1:30 PM, she made it to the top, officially becoming the fourth woman to ever make the journey up. An incredible feat, don't get me wrong. But there's one thing that every seasoned climber knows about Everest, something every Sherpa will warn you about. You have to start coming down from the peak at 2 PM, no questions asked. The sun starts setting really fast, and you don't want to be stranded up there in the cold. It's already negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and it just gets worse at night. The descent down is also harder than climbing up. And after you've been starved of oxygen for a few hours, you don't want to have to navigate through rough terrain in the dark. Also, you're not going to be rescued up there in the dark.
9:11 Kaelyn Moore? No offense, but no one is going to kill themselves trying to save you. The point being, Hanolor had to essentially turn right around and head back down the mountain. She didn't have time to rest once she got to the top. And as her group started heading down, they got more and more tired, and the oxygen levels in their tank were dropping really fast. Once Hanolor and Ray got to around 28,000 feet, they decided that they were going to stop. Night was quickly approaching, and they figured that they would sleep and then continue on in the morning. But their Sherpa guides begged them to keep going. "No one survives a night in the death zone, especially without shelter," they said. But Ray and Hanolor chose to stay,
9:55 Kaelyn Moore? even when one of the Sherpa guides turned around and kept going back to camp. Sangdar, the other Sherpa, however, decided that he was going to risk his life and stay with them to make sure that they were safe. The next morning, Ray was dead. The cold had killed him, and Hanolor was barely hanging on. So Sangdar did the only thing he could think to do and just grabbed her and started helping her down the mountain. But they only made it about 100 meters before she fell again. And that was just about 100 meters away from the safety of Camp Four. If she could just get up, they would make it. But it was too late. Hanolor looked at Sangdar and whispered, "Water." And that was her last word. Sangdar was able to make it back to base camp,
10:40 Kaelyn Moore? but because he had been exposed to such devastatingly cold temperatures for so long while he was trying to help Hanolor and Ray, he lost most of his fingers and toes to frostbite. The bodies of Hanolor and Ray remained on the mountain for years after their death. Ray was eventually covered by snowfall, but Hanolor sat against her backpack near base camp for years, eyes open, staring at the hikers who would pass her, unable to help. In 1984, two Nepalese hikers in their 30s actually died while they were trying to recover her body. They wanted to bring her home to her husband and they lost their lives while doing so.
11:21 Kaelyn Moore? And this is a huge reason why bodies on the mountain don't really get recovered all of the time. Sometimes it's just not safe, but another reason is that it is very expensive to do so. It costs a lot to get up the mountain. And if someone's family can't afford tens of thousands of dollars that it takes to safely send a recovery crew up to get a body, that body will just stay there forever. Now, eventually, the wind blew Hanolor from her position down the east face of the mountain, where she still is today, though out of sight.
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14:00 Kaelyn Moore? The higher you climb into the death zone of Mount Everest, the more bodies you're going to see. At first, it looks like bright patches in the snow along the path that kind of look like garbage, but as you get closer, those patches start to take shape. They're all bodies, lying on their sides, half obscured by snowdrift. Some of them are wrapped in yellow climbing rope, like these technicolor mummies. It is very scary to see. Some of these bodies are only partly visible, but others are just like how Honolor was, completely visible and in near-perfect condition. They look like they just laid down to take a nap. And that brings us to the next body that I want to tell you about in the death zone.
14:41 Kaelyn Moore? It's a woman, dressed in purple insulating gear and lying in perfect repose with her hands clasped on her chest. You can see her exposed face, which is icy white but serene. Today, the Sherpas call her Sleeping Beauty.
14:57 Kaelyn Moore? Her name is Frances Arsentiev and she was an accountant from Colorado who became a climbing enthusiast after meeting her husband, world-renowned Russian climber Sergey Arsentiev. Sergey was known as "the snow leopard" in Russia. Him and Frances climbed many mountains together and even named one after themselves when they were the first to make it to the top. Frances was the first American woman to summit several different mountains without oxygen. That was kind of her and Sergey's thing. They liked to challenge themselves as much as possible, relying on their bodies alone with no special equipment. Eventually, they set their sights on Everest. Now, some people have climbed the mountain without oxygen. I know we've talked about
15:39 Kaelyn Moore? how deadly the death zone is without supplemental oxygen, but it has been done. Some Sherpas can do it because they grew up near and on the mountain. They're in better shape than we are and they're just more used to the altitude. But to do it requires months of preparation. Fitness regimens, including long sessions of uphill cardio with increasingly large loads on your back, and strength training focusing on your legs and your core. To do it essentially means you need to become an Olympic athlete. And even still, you are five times more likely to die in the mountain if you try to summit without supplemental oxygen, which is why even with all that training, few Everest guides recommend climbing without
16:20 Kaelyn Moore? oxygen. In fact, Frances had an 11-year-old son from a previous relationship who was very concerned about her decision to do so. This is a prime example of the psychology of many Everest climbers that I've read about. To them, climbing the mountain is a calling. It's not just a hobby. It transcends their own safety, but it also transcends their family's concerns, even their young children. In May of 1998, Frances and Sergey began their attempt, and it was immediately off to a bad start, as I'm sure you can imagine. The couple spent far too much time at Camp Four, the final camp before the summit near where Hanalor died. They were burning a lot of calories
17:02 Kaelyn Moore? and they were risking altitude sickness. They made two unsuccessful summit attempts, turning their back after they had equipment issues. Finally, they did make it to the top, and Frances did become the first American woman to summit the mountain without oxygen. She had achieved her lifelong goal. But because they had so little oxygen in their system, they were moving very slowly and they didn't start their descent until 4:00 PM, which is way too late in the day. The sun was setting and it was starting to get dark fast. Once it was dark, they became separated. Sergei did ultimately make it back down to Camp Four, where he was devastated to learn that Frances hadn't made it yet. She was somewhere up higher in the death zone,
17:47 Kaelyn Moore? but he didn't have the strength at that point to go back and try and help her. But the next morning, a different group of climbers found Frances on the trail. She was convulsing at that point. Her skin was frozen to where it looked porcelain white. They did their best to try to bring her further down the mountain, but they had to give up as their own oxygen was getting low and they didn't want to die trying to save her. As the climbers descended, they encountered Sergei going back up after Frances, holding a tank of oxygen for her. The next morning, climbers from that same group came across Frances again. Somehow, she was still alive, it seemed. And in a really eerie twist, she was repeating the phrase, quote, "Don't leave me. How could you do this to me?
18:32 Kaelyn Moore? And I'm American." She passed away shortly after this sighting. Now, they found Sergei's axe next to Frances, but no sign of Sergei. And so they thought maybe he had left her to go save himself. Frances was eventually unclipped from the climbing rope and moved off to the side of the trail, where she was left in that peaceful pose I described. She stayed there for 10 years before someone eventually moved her, and she was really a classic fixture of the mountain, becoming known by her nickname Sleeping Beauty. Sergei, however, was found in a crevasse the following year. In an attempt to save his wife's life, he had somehow fallen to his death. The whole thing is tragic, but probably the most tragic part of all of this
19:16 Kaelyn Moore? is a quote that I read from Frances's young son, who was left without a mother after the climb. He later said, quote, I don't know why she decided she had to do it without oxygen, but I think she felt like she needed to prove something. Now, what that was she needed to prove, we may never know. I don't even think her son knows, but it's the thing that I've been trying to decode while reading about these stories. What are these people trying to prove to themselves? Now, as we continue our cold and horrible trek to the top of Everest, soon, another body comes into view. This one is at 27,720 feet, and it is quite small.
19:58 Kaelyn Moore? It's a woman who doesn't look like she could have weighed more than 100 pounds. Her death seems extra tragic when you see that Camp Four is still in sight near her body. This body is also right next to a trail. If she could have made it just a little bit further, she may have survived. But as we know, 1,000 feet on Everest might as well be 100,000. And unfortunately, this woman was caught in what would become the deadliest season on Everest up until that point. In 1996, 47-year-old Yasuko Namba aimed to become the second-ever Japanese woman and the oldest woman ever to summit Everest. She had that same drive that those other women had,
20:40 Kaelyn Moore? but she had chosen to attempt the summit at the same time as four other groups. The first group was adventure consultants led by a man named Rob Hall. Rob was a New Zealander, and he had climbed Everest five times more than any other non-Shirpa. His tours were expensive, but he was honestly the best guide that you could get. He was Yasuko's guide, and John Krakauer, the author who would go on to write the most famous account of this trip into the void, was also in this group. The second group had a totally different vibe. They were called Mountain Madness, and they were led by this guy Scott Fisher. Now, Scott has been described as kind of the classic cocky American tour guide who basically only toured wealthy elites on the mountain.
21:25 Kaelyn Moore? He had bragged to his clients, quote, "We've got the biggie figured out. We've totally got it wired. These days, I'm telling you, we've built a yellow brick road to the summit." In other words, he was starting to forget that no matter how well you map out the climb, Everest is still one of the most dangerous places in the world. There was also two other smaller tour groups from India and Taiwan summiting at this time. As always, once you get to Camp Four at 26,000 feet, you're in the death zone and in the most danger. You need to summit quickly, within 20 hours, and then get back down. But things were made even more complicated during the 1996 season when a storm began brewing in the Himalayas. Forecasters predicted that the storm would reach Everest and make it
22:07 Kaelyn Moore? unclimbable for weeks. We're talking hurricane-force winds and temperatures that could instantly freeze your eyeballs and blind you, or freeze your lungs while you're trying to breathe in. By May 9, 1996, the four groups had made it to Camp Four, and they started to trek to the summit at 11:00 PM so they could get ahead of this storm. Temperatures were far below zero, visibility was low, and everyone was making a mad dash to the top. And then, at 27,600 feet, the worst thing that could have happened, happened. A traffic jam. There were over 30 people lined up, waiting to climb to the top. Even worse, there had been
22:48 Kaelyn Moore? a communication error between the Sherpas, Scott Fisher, and Rob Hall. And there were no ropes pre-installed to help these climbers along the path. So, so much for that Yellow Brick Road, Scott. But Scott had promised his clients that he could take them easily to the top. And he was already looking kind of dumb now that he had made it so close and would have to have his group turn around because of his communication error. He would look even worse, he thought, if the nine people paying him hundreds of thousands of combined dollars had wasted their money. They decided that they were going to wait a few hours into the early morning of May 10 for the ropes to be installed. And once those ropes were, the groups all continued on. Now, later that day, Yasuko and her expedition
23:33 Kaelyn Moore? finally made it to the top at 2:30 PM. She achieved her goal of becoming the second Japanese woman and the oldest woman to ever summit Everest up to that point. But she had to turn around and book it back down the mountain before she ran out of oxygen. Scott Fisher and the last of his expedition didn't even get to the top until 3:45 PM as the sun was starting to set. Everyone in his group was really excited to have made it all the way up until they noticed that Scott looked really bad. He was nauseous and he was dizzy. He could barely stay up on his feet.
24:12 Kaelyn Moore? The overconfident American expedition leader had really bad altitude sickness. And even worse, the storm was still raging towards them. Clouds soon filled the sky and snow flurries began tumbling down. The climbers and the guides who led them there had allowed the storm to catch up to them. By 4:00 PM, just 15 minutes after Scott and his team summited, the storm hit the mountain, dropping temperatures to 40 degrees below zero and destroying visibility. Wind whipped around everyone at extreme speeds and the wind chill made it feel like it was 100 degrees below zero.
24:52 Kaelyn Moore? Breathing without oxygen or taking off any protective covering was now immediately deadly. Basically, if you even took your glove off, you would need to have your hand amputated because of the frostbite. Scott Fisher's condition was also deteriorating at this point. Sherpas tried to help him down the mountain, but he could barely move, barely hold on to the ropes. Finally, he told them that they should leave him there to save themselves. So now it was on Rob Hall, the Sherpas, and a few other expedition company members to get clients from both expeditions down safely. Yasuko struggled to even see the lines ahead of her. She had no idea where she was, completely stuck in this white void, and soon she was
25:36 Kaelyn Moore? out of oxygen in her tank. She had no choice but to try and breathe the freezing air around her to save herself. And when you do that, you begin to rapidly freeze as well from the inside. Her blood vessels constricted, desperate to get more oxygen, capillaries in her lungs and brain began to burst, filling her cranium and her lungs with blood. And eventually she collapsed, the terrible winds whipping around her. But what's horrible about being on Everest and freezing to death like this is you're conscious for a while and you feel yourself as your body slowly starts to shut down. Now incredibly, she was still alive when the weather briefly cleared the next day on May 11th.
26:21 Kaelyn Moore? Some of her team members had come back up to find her and other missing climbers. It was horrific. They literally had to crack a layer of ice on her face to see if she was still alive. They found out that she was, she was breathing and she still had a little bit of a pulse. But it might've been better if she was already dead because they decided that there was nothing they could do for her. There were other people to save on the mountain and they decided that she was past the point of any realistic rescue. Everyone was hurting on some level, either from frostbite or altitude sickness. Every trip up to save people put them at greater risk. They had to leave her and just keep moving. Rob Hall and other expedition members
27:06 Kaelyn Moore? kept going back and forth up the mountain until they saved everyone that they could. And eventually, Rob's body was pushed to its limits as well. He sat down, his breathing slowed, and pretty shortly after that, he passed away. In the end, the May 1996 climbing season proved to be the deadliest in Everest's history up until that point. Eight people from the combined expeditions died and several others lost limbs, fingers and toes to frostbite. John Krakauer was on the climb as a reporter for Outside Magazine. And in his article and subsequent book, he blasted the guides for their risky decision-making. He highlighted for the general public
27:50 Kaelyn Moore? how Everest had become this decadent endeavor for the rich, one which cost several their lives, and how this puts other climbers at risk. Because people like Scott and like Rob feel like they have to continue on in dangerous conditions because their clients have paid so much money. Or because their clients who have paid so much money are making them feel bad for not continuing the hike. They feel like they're wasting their money. So it's a lose-lose for everyone. Yasuko's husband eventually funded an expedition that brought her body down the mountain, but today, hikers that take the same route see several bodies all along the path, close enough to touch. And that morbidly brings me to our next stop, just a few hundred
28:35 Kaelyn Moore? feet up from where Yasuko died. It's a cave where two men sit side by side for all of eternity. At this point in our climb, we're now at 27,890 feet, just over 1,000 feet from the top of Mount Everest. A small, dark cave appears off the right side of the path, providing a nice overlook. The Sherpas know this as Green Boots Cave. There's not one, but two bodies in this small cave. One is hunched over with its face obscured. The corpse has on a pair of bright, green hiking boots, hence the name of the cave. Though, no positive ID has ever been made, it's believed that Green Boots was an Indian man named Siwang Paljor. He loved to
29:20 Kaelyn Moore? climb and even became a member of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police so that he could work on the mountain. He, along with two of his fellow border policemen, died in the 1996 storm. There is a little bit of debate if the body is his or one of his friends. But next to him is an even stranger body. It's a man, sitting with his knees pushed up to his chin. He looks lonely as he stares out into the distance. This is David Sharp, a man who tried to climb Mount Everest without an oxygen tank, alone. His case is one of the most extreme instances of adventurism that we're going to cover today. David came from seemingly humble beginnings. He was an engineer
30:01 Kaelyn Moore? from England. He had a successful climbing career up until that point. He climbed some of the world's tallest mountains without oxygen, but Everest really called to him. David actually first tried to climb Everest with a guide in 2003, but he lost two toes to frostbite, a mere 650 feet from the top. He tried again in 2004, also with a guide, and supposedly he clashed with this guide over not using oxygen. And because of this, they didn't make it to the top. So after that, David was pretty fed up. This directly led to his May 2006 climb, where he decided that he was just going to go completely alone. He booked through a company called Asian Trekking,
30:46 Kaelyn Moore? which is run by Sherpas and basically gives a permit to anyone willing to pay. As a result, they had the majority of climbers that needed to be rescued from the mountain. But they gave David what he wanted, and he only had to pay $6,000 as opposed to $30,000 that were charged by other companies. So with that, he started his ascent. No oxygen, no Sherpa to tell him to turn around if it got unsafe. He didn't even take a radio in case anything happened to him. Now, some people believe that David did this because he knew he would die on the mountain. But from what we know, he just wanted to prove that he could do the climb all on his own. But no one would ever report seeing David at the top.
31:30 Kaelyn Moore? It seems like he did not make it. And instead, he climbed inside of the Green Boots Cave for Shelter on the night of May 14, 2006, the coldest night of that season. Dozens of climbers found him there, shivering, suffering from hypothermia and altitude sickness, sitting next to the already dead body of Green Boots himself. He kept muttering reportedly, "My name is David Sharp. I'm with Asian Trekking, and I just want to sleep." Some people criticized the other climbers when they learned how many people had passed David without helping. But that, like we said, is the reality of the death zone. You can't really stop to help others or you risk running out of oxygen and dying yourself or not making it to the top.
32:14 Kaelyn Moore? And how can you blame someone who didn't want to die for a man that didn't take any safety precautions while climbing? Asian Trekking also doesn't necessarily have a responsibility to everyone who wants to test themselves against the mountain. They're not babysitters. What people do once they have their permit is on them. David's arrogance and climbing alone without oxygen meant that he gave up the right to expect anyone to save him.
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34:46 Speaker 05 Some days call for a light jacket, others an umbrella, and occasionally a rowboat.
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35:46 Kaelyn Moore? Now, this last body that I want to tell you about on the mountain is actually the foot that was recovered last year. When this foot was found, it was still wrapped in a shoe and a sock that both looked pretty old. The sock even had a name stitched into it, A.C. Irvine. Now, before there were a bunch of privileged elites climbing the mountain, there were simple adventurers just trying to see if it could be done. The first people to make it to the top and come back down alive were New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who's one of the most famous mountaineers of all time, and a Nepalese Indian climbing enthusiast and Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay. They did this climb in 1953. Tenzing is still incredibly famous for doing this hike.
36:30 Kaelyn Moore? But some of the first people to try to summit the mountain actually disappeared while doing so. They were a pair of Englishmen named George Lee Mallory and Andrew Irvine, also known as Sandy. This happened in 1924. Now, George Mallory was an English teacher, a World War I veteran, and an adventurer, a real Indiana Jones type. He joined expeditions to Everest in 1921 and 1922, both of which ended in failure and the deaths of multiple Sherpas. He wasn't very excited to go on the final expedition in 1924, but he didn't want to miss out on making it to the summit. He left behind a wife and three kids who he had barely seen in 10 years of marriage. But before he left, he told his wife that he was going to bring a photo of her with him
37:15 Kaelyn Moore? and that if he made it to the top, he would leave it there. And with that, he took off. He was just 38 at the time. He was joined by a 22-year-old named Sandy Irvine, among others. Sandy was an engineering student who had devised more efficient oxygen bottles and masks that could theoretically help the expedition reach the summit this time. Otherwise, they only had leather boots and cotton and wool jackets. They would have been incredibly cold the entire journey up. This expedition had 12 English explorers in total and dozens of Sherpas. They reached base camp in April and they had until June to make it to the top before the weather got really bad.
37:57 Kaelyn Moore? Because there's a really small window of time each year where the weather won't automatically kill you. By June 8, 1924, they reached 26,000 feet, the area that we've been calling the Death Zone. A storm was approaching the mountain and the group wanted to descend to a lower camp. But George and Sandy decided to make a run for the top using Sandy's new oxygen bottles. That was the last time they were ever seen alive. And it would actually be decades before either of their bodies were ever found. In 1933, a new British expedition found an axe belonging to Sandy in the Death Zone, though it was still very far from the peak. Later that same year, a Chinese expedition found one of Sandy's oxygen bottles. George's body was finally discovered in 1999,
38:42 Kaelyn Moore? more than 70 years later, by an expedition that was specifically looking for it. He was found face down with his arms spread out and you could still read the name on the back of his shirt. The saddest part was he had a rope tied around his waist. So it seemed like he and Sandy were trying to get back down and were probably tethered together. Something must have happened, a storm or an avalanche that sent them falling and ultimately separated them. It looked like the rope had squeezed the life out of him. Sandy's foot wouldn't be found for another 25 years in 2024, but we have to wonder, did they make it to the summit before they died? Because that would make them the first people to ever do so. From the way that George was
39:25 Kaelyn Moore? found, it seemed like they died on their way down, not on their way up. If they were coming down from the peak, then that would have made them the first two people to ever reach the top of Everest, 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Well, the search team that found George's body searched it thoroughly, looking for the missing key, the photo of his wife. And they found that he did not have a picture of her on him when he died. Is it possible that the photo of her is still up at the peak of Mount Everest, frozen in ice, there forever? It could be, which would have marked an incredible feat for George,
40:06 Kaelyn Moore? though I'm sure if we were to ask his wife, who was left to raise their children alone after George's disappearance, and who never knew what happened to her husband for the rest of her life, I think she would probably say that it wasn't worth it. And with that, we have completed our hike on Everest, up and down, out of the death zone, seeing the bodies that are scattered on the mountain along the way. I mean, this was just a couple of them, too. There are over 200 bodies still on the mountain. And now I want to hear about what you guys think. What is it about Everest that calls to people? I am genuinely curious what you think. You can leave me a comment wherever you listen. Is it just blind confidence
40:48 Kaelyn Moore? that people have? Is it hubris? Do some people just legitimately not care what happens to them? Now, if you want to join me over on Footnotes on Patreon, I'm going to discuss with producer Matt a couple more bodies that didn't make it into the episode. That's available to the high council tier. So please join me over there if you want to hear about those. And then next week, we are going to switch it up a little bit and I want to tell you about cults. Specifically, I want to tell you about real people who had very scary, real run ins with cults. And the cult expert herself, Amanda Montel, author of Cultish, is going to join me for that one. Now I will see you there for that. And until then, stay warm, you guys.
41:37 Kaelyn Moore? Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kaelyn Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs. Additional research and writing by Greg Castro. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jornigan, the team at WME and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out hearts start pounding.com. This episode is brought to you by our partner, Vistaprint. If you run a small business, you know that there's a moment where you go from just doing the thing you love to realizing you need stuff, like physical stuff, custom merch for an event, branded apparel for your team, business cards that actually look professional. That was definitely me with Heart Starts Pounding. What started as a podcast I made in my closet turned into something that had merch, had mugs,
42:22 Kaelyn Moore? had stickers, had all of this stuff that I needed to get made. And Vistaprint made it so much less overwhelming. They are a true print expert. Premium quality products, fast turnaround and design tools that actually make sense. I actually got custom mugs made from Vistaprint and they are gorgeous and very, very good quality. The quality feels expensive without having an expensive price tag. There's a reason over 17 million businesses trust Vistaprint with their print needs. Vistaprint, print your possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com. That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com using code NEW20. Do you want more darkly curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content,
43:06 Kaelyn Moore? our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash heart starts pounding. But whatever you do, stay curious.
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