Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa recalls the harrowing sight of a dead body near the summit of Mount Lhotse over a decade ago. In May 2012, while guiding a German climber, Sherpa encountered the body of Czech mountaineer Milan Sedlacek, who had perished days earlier. Notably, one glove was missing from the frozen corpse, suggesting Sedlacek might have slipped, lost his balance, and fallen to his death. Climbers since then had to navigate around the body.

Fast forward 12 years, Sherpa, now 46, found himself part of a Nepali army team tasked with cleaning the high Himalayas, including retrieving climbers' bodies. Since records began a century ago, over 300 climbers have died in the Everest region, with many bodies remaining on the mountains. This year alone saw eight deaths, with 18 in 2023, according to Nepal’s tourism department.

Launched in 2019, Nepal’s clean-up campaign aimed to remove bodies and rubbish from the mountains. This year marked the first attempt to retrieve five bodies from the “death zone” above 8,000 meters. The team, subsisting on water, chocolate, and sattu (a mix of chickpea, barley, and wheat flour), successfully brought down four bodies and 11 tonnes of rubbish during a 54-day operation that ended on June 5.

The campaign's dual goals were to improve climber safety and counter Nepal’s negative reputation for polluted mountains. Major Aditya Karki, leading the operation, noted that many climbers are startled by the sight of dead bodies, with one mountaineer freezing in fear for half an hour last year.

Financial and logistical challenges make body retrievals rare. It costs five million rupees (approximately $37,400) to retrieve each body, with oxygen alone costing $20,000. The 12-person team required for each retrieval faced severe conditions, including high winds and extreme altitudes, with only a brief window of about 15 days annually for safe operations.

Working mostly at night to avoid disturbing other climbers, the team used a roping system to carefully lower the bodies. Even strong Sherpas can only carry up to 25kg at 8,000 meters, making the task arduous. Sherpa recounts vomiting and suffering headaches due to the high altitude.

The body near the Lhotse summit was particularly challenging due to its exposure and frozen state. Transporting it 3.5km to the nearest camp took 24 hours, followed by another 13 hours to reach a lower camp. Weather delays in Namche extended the journey to Kathmandu, where the bodies arrived safely on June 4.

Currently, the bodies and a skeleton are held in a Kathmandu hospital. Two bodies have been identified as Milan Sedlacek and American climber Ronald Yearwood, who died in 2017. Identification of the other bodies is ongoing, with the Nepali government liaising with relevant embassies. Sherpas, who track lost climbers' locations, believe all the bodies belong to foreigners, though official confirmation is pending.

If unclaimed within three months, the bodies will be buried, regardless of nationality. Sherpa, who began climbing at 20 and has scaled Everest three times and Lhotse five times, views this task as a way to repay the Himalayas for the opportunities they’ve provided.