Mount Everest is notorious for its harsh climbing conditions, and the treacherous weather that faces climbers. Everest summit is not only the highest but also among the coldest places on earth to humans. Any exposed skin at high altitudes is prone to frost bite.
Above 8,000 meters is called “death zone” on Mount Everest due to the low oxygen levels. Most climbers use supplementary oxygen once past this point as the air is not able to support life for very long. These low oxygen levels wreak havoc on the human body and brain. The oxygen level in the “death zone” is only one third of the sea level value, which means the body will use up its store of oxygen faster than breathing can replenish it. This can exhaust your energy extremely quickly just trying to breath.
A research conducted by the British Medical Journal from 1921 to 2006 revealed that 8,030 climbers to the summit of Mount Everest about 212 died on the slopes of the mountain. The Records suggest that one out of ten successful climbs has ended in death, with majority of deaths occurring while descending the mountain.
Some 200 people still lie dead along the slopes of Mount Everest. An area along the northeast route to the summit has earned the nickname of “Rainbow Valley”, simply because of the multicolored down jackets of the numerous corpses littering the hillside. A small limestone overhang located at 8,500m, it was already infamous among climbers as “Green Boots cave”. For the past years, the body of a climber wearing green boots who died in 1996 has been a grim landmark for every climber of the northeast route just a few feet away from their track.
