Abandoned on Everest

In 2006, a lone climber attempting the summit of Mount Everest for the third time was, purely by chance, caught in an amateur photograph taken by another climber of the scenic mountaintop ahead. The climber in the photograph was making his way up what is known as the Final Push of the Northeast ridge, between Camp VI at 8,230 m and the summit. It was late in the afternoon, a foolishly reckless time to undertake the lengthy and dangerous route. It would be many hours before the the photographer and his climbing team saw the man again. For decades, this rope had taken climbers within a few feet of what became known as Green Boots cave. This morning, however, Green Boots had company. What happened next entered the folklore of the highest mountain on earth. While chilling in itself, the incident pales in the bigger context of the deadliness of Mount Everest. Above a certain altitude, no human can ever acclimatize. In such conditions, odd things happen to human physical and mental states.

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