Descending Mount Everest Is Even Harder When You're Dead

Descending from the top of the world is no easy feat, taking hours or days—or more than a year, if you happen to be dead. 

In a 13,000-word feature, supplemented by jaw-dropping video footage, the New York Times recounts the incredible efforts taken to retrieve the bodies of three Indian climbers who died on Mount Everest in May 2016. 

While most bodies on Everest remain where they fell, some even used as markers, retrieval was deemed necessary for the families of truck driver Subhas Paul, 44; one-handed tailor Paresh Nath, 58; and police officer Goutam Ghosh, 50. Poorer than the average Everest climbers, the three had "cut costs and corners, because otherwise Everest was completely out of reach," the Times reports. Without their bodies, their Hindu families couldn't release their souls through cremation, nor could they get a death certificate required for financial death benefits.

Read the full story on Newser.com

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