Kathmandu - On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain. Among those scaling the soaring Himalayan mountain this year was a team not aiming for the 29,032-foot peak, but risking their own lives to bring some of the corpses down.
The retrieval of corpses at high altitudes is a controversial topic for the climbing community. It costs thousands of dollars, and up to eight rescuers are needed for each body. A body can weigh over 220 pounds, and at high altitudes, a person's ability to carry heavy loads is severely affected.But Karki said the rescue effort was necessary. 'We have to bring them back as much as possible,' he said. 'If we keep leaving them behind, our mountains will turn into a graveyard.