Mountaineering must be the only sport in the world where you’ll occasionally run across the frozen body of an old friend and no one considers it all that weird. About 200 people have died on Everest and their remains have stayed on the mountainside, some of them like ‘Green Boots’ familiar markers to climbers on their way up or down. This season one climber found the body of his 28-year-old friend from Scotland who’d died on the way down a couple months earlier. The deceased climber’s family had requested that the friend retrieve the camera if he could, but the body proved too far out of reach.  Upstanding UK newspaper the Mirror has all the details.

Climbing guide Neal Beidleman who survived the 1996 disaster on Everest though he lost his climbing partner and several friends returned to the mountain this year. In 1996 he was caught high on the mountain beyond any hope of rescue, but he managed to get himself down and helped anyone he could on the way. He summited on Friday, passing many of the graves of friends on the way up. The Ottawa Citizen has a write up on his trip to the summit. It’s an interesting account of what was certainly a bold choice to go back after 15 years.

A duo of climbers summited Mount Everest over the weekend and instead of climbing down took a shortcut. They paraglided off the summit, flying over 20 kilometers to land at Namche Bazaar. Two other flight attempts were scratched this season. After they finish throwing high fives on their decision to take the elevator down instead of the stairs, the pair will continue hiking on their way down to sea level. The Everest summit was only one leg of their summit-to-sea journey that will eventually finish in Bangladesh.

via Outside

May 14^th was a hectic day for me. I had to get up by 10am to meet some friends for breakfast, go to a BBQ and then go all the way across town for another BBQ. So I can totally relate to Michael Horst, the climber who put up two 8000m peaks on May 14^th. Alpinist is reporting that he climbed Everest then descended to Camp IV before traversing the South Col and topping out on Lhotse 21 hours later. Heckuva day, both of us. Well done.

Photo by Mingma Sherpa

Apa Sherpa broke his own record of 20 summits on the world’s tallest mountain the other day when he posed for a photo at the top once more. That’s pretty good when you consider that out of every 10 people who make it to the top, one dies on the way down. Apa’s first summit was in 1990 with Peter Hillary and Rob Hall, and since then he’s gone up most years (notably skipping the disastrous 1996 season to spend time working on a lodge). Well done, Apa.