Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - 151. Mount Everest Horror: The Lost Climbers of the Death Zone

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Last year, a group of adventurers with National Geographic were hiking Mount Everest when they saw a human foot sticking out of the ice. Now, it is not rare to see dead bodies on the mountain, there are at least 200 of them scattered around Everest, and many of them act as markers for trails, frozen forever in time where they fell But this human foot in particular, had been on the mountain for 100 years and solved a century old mystery… Subscribe on⁠ Patreon⁠ to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society and enjoy ad-free listening, monthly bonus content, merch discounts and more. Members of our High Council on Patreon also have access to our weekly after-show, Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. You can also enjoy many of these same perks, including ad-free listening and bonus content when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts . Follow on⁠ Tik Tok⁠ and⁠ Instagram⁠ for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah, way better.

Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bel Air Direct, insurance simplified. Conditions apply. Last year, a group of adventurers with National Geographic were hiking Mount Everest when they saw a human foot sticking out of the ice. Now, it is not rare to see dead bodies on the mountain. There's at least 200 of them scattered around Everest, and many of them act as markers for the trails, frozen forever in time where they fell.

But this human foot in particular had been on the mountain for 100 years and solved a century-old mystery. Welcome back to Heart Starts Pounding. I'm your host, Kayla Moore. And today, it feels so good to be here inside of the Rogue Detecting Society headquarters and not out on a mountain. Because today, we're going to be talking about the bodies that are still stuck on Mount Everest, who they belong to, and the mystery that was solved when a 100-year-old foot was found. Just a reminder, if you like true crime cases that read like Gothic horror, mysteries that will keep you up at night, and let me check my notes here, reading about tragedy that happens

on a completely optional hiking expedition, you're in the right place, because you are just like me. Wherever you are, make sure you follow along, leave a comment, subscribe, all of that good stuff. Now, typically, I like to shout out listeners here, but I want to ask you a question today. Would any of you ever hike Mount Everest? Or if you have, please let me know, because after reading so much about this, I must hear from someone in this community about their experience. I personally would never hike Mount Everest. I even get anxiety when I look at pictures of the mountain, but I am deeply curious about the types of people that choose to make this hike. And so today, in our episode, I also want to explore some of the motivations

behind why these people do this extremely dangerous and totally optional feet that many of us find so unappealing. Okay, let's get into it. Mount Everest, located on the China-Napal border, nestled in the Himalayas, is the tallest mountain in the world above sea level. Coming in at around 29,000 feet or 8,800 meters, that's right around cruising altitude for a plane. Climbing Mount Everest, and I cannot stress this enough, you guys, is an incredibly expensive. endeavor. We're talking about $50,000 minimum if you want to get to the top. And a lot of people

spend far more money than that. Among some of the most expensive things you need to complete the hike are at least $3,000 worth of oxygen, a $3,000 round trip plane ticket to Kathmandu in Nepal, and $30,000 for a permit and guide package. And honestly, that's the cheap option. There's some very wealthy people that will pay Western guides a million dollars or more to make sure that they have every amenity available to them on the mountain. I mean, I found this one company called Fertinbach Expeditions that has a package at 200,000 euros starting that gets you up and down the mountain in just three weeks. It includes a private luxury tent, VIP travel accommodations, and they'll even make you a personal documentary of your climb. And that's just the reality of this mountain. While there

are people who make it their life's mission to Summit Everest. They save up for years for the chance to be able to climb. A recent criticism of the mountain is that it's become another extreme endeavor for the Uber rich, honestly, kind of like the Titan submersible, where some people feel like they can just pay whatever to get them to the top. But what a lot of those people find out is that being rich is not going to make you physically fit enough to survive once you're there. And that is where accidents happen. And that kind of brings me to the first body I want to tell you about. A woman named Hanelor Schmatz.

For years, starting in 1979, as hikers got to 27,200 feet going up the southern route of the mountain, that's the route that 98% of hikers choose, a woman could be seen sitting in place completely frozen. She was leaning against her backpack with her eyes closed and her hair was gently swaying in the wind. This is Hanelor Schmats. And according to hikers that saw her, she looked like she could have just stood up and walked the few hundred feet back to the safety of her camp. But she died in a very preventable accident.

And her body sat on the mountain, frozen and alone for years. Honolour was a 39-year-old German mountaineer who wanted to become the fourth woman to ever summit Mount Everest. By October 2nd, 1979, she had made it through the arduous climb towards the summit. That's two to three weeks acclimatizing to the altitude at a base camp at around 17,000 feet, where her body started getting used to the lack of oxygen. There she would have checked her equipment. She would have undergone some medical evaluations to make sure that she was physically fit. She may have even gotten a blessing from a monk.

And then she would have made the very arduous three to four day hike to camp four, which sits at 26,000 feet on the mountain. And there she would have started her final push to, the top, the morning of October 2nd. The previous day, her husband, Gerhard Schmots, became the oldest man to summit the mountain at 50 years old. And Hanelor initially didn't know if she was going to actually try for the top of Everest, but after watching her husband do it, she decided that she was going to go for it. With her, she had an American climber named Ray Jinnay and two Sherpa guides named Sungdair and Ang Jambu. Her husband was not going to be

joining her, so she radioed him back down at camp and said that she would see him when she made it back. But his voice sounded concerned when he replied, the weather is turning. Maybe you should wait, he said. But Hanelor was in what's known as the death zone of Mount Everest, the area above 26,000 feet. And when you're there, you are quite literally dying every single moment. The air doesn't have of oxygen in it to replenish your blood, so you need to rely on tanks of oxygen to supply you. And even then, you have about 20 hours in the zone before you're dead. Waiting does not exist in the death zone. You either push to the summit or you turn back to safety.

Honolour felt like this was going to be her only chance. So she decided that she was going to press on. By 1.30 p.m., she made it to the top, officially becoming the fourth woman to ever make the journey up. An incredible feat, don't get me wrong. But there's one thing that every seasoned climber knows about Everest, something every Sherpa will warn you about. You have to start coming down from the peak at 2 p.m. No questions asked. The sun starts setting really fast and you don't want to be stranded up there in the cold. It's already negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and it just gets worse at night. The descent down is also harder than climbing up.

and after you've been starved of oxygen for a few hours, you don't want to have to navigate through rough terrain in the dark. Also, you're not going to be rescued up there in the dark. No offense, but no one is going to kill themselves trying to save you. The point being, Hanelor had to essentially turn right around and head back down the mountain. She didn't have time to rest once she got to the top. And as her group started heading down, they got more and more tired,

and the oxygen levels and their tank were dropping. really fast. Once Hanelor and Ray got to around 28,000 feet, they decided that they were going to stop. Night was quickly approaching, and they figured that they would sleep and then continue on in the morning. But their Sherpa guides begged them to keep going. No one survives a night in the death zone, especially without shelter, they said. But Ray and Hanolor chose to stay, even when one of the Sherpa guides turned around and kept going back to camp. Sungdair, the other Sherpa, however, decided that he was going to risk his life and stay with them to make sure that they were safe. The next morning, Ray was dead. The cold had killed him, and Hanelor was barely hanging on.

So Sangdair did the only thing he could think to do and just grabbed her and started helping her down the mountain. But they only made it about 100 meters before she fell again. And that was just about 100 meters away from the safety of Camp 4. If she could just get up, they would make it. but it was too late. Hanelor looked at Sungdair and whispered, Water, and that was her last word. Sungdair was able to make it back to base camp, but because he had been exposed to such devastatingly cold temperatures

for so long while he was trying to help Hanelor and Ray, he lost most of his fingers and toes to frostbite. The bodies of Hanelor and Ray remained on the mountain for years after their death. Ray was eventually covered by snowfall, but Honolour sat against her backpack near base camp for years, eyes open, staring at the hikers who would pass her unable to help. In 1984, two Nepalese hikers in their 30s actually died while they were trying to recover her body. They wanted to bring her home to her husband, and they lost their lives while doing so.

And this is a huge reason why bodies on the mountain don't really get recovered all of the Sometimes it's just not safe, but another reason is that it is very expensive to do so. It costs a lot to get up the mountain, and if someone's family can't afford tens of thousands of dollars that it takes to safely send a recovery crew up to get a body, that body will just stay there forever. Now, eventually the wind blew Hanelor from her position down the east face of the mountain, where she still is today, though out of sight. You know what's better than the one big thing?

Two big things. Exactly. The new iPhone 17 Pro on TELUS' five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. This episode is brought to you by Nutraful.

Maybe you have been having issues with your hair. There's so many products out there and it's hard to know which ones are actually going to do anything. That's exactly why I gave Nutrafol a closer look. It's not just hype. It's physician formulated, clinically tested, and even recommended by dermatologists. Nutrifol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand, trusted by over one and a half million people. You can feel great about what you're putting into your body since Nutraful hair growth supplements are backed by peer-reviewed studies and NSF content certified.

the gold standard and third-party certification for supplements. I started with the women's formula, but Nutraful also has a postpartum formula that I might need to start in January. See thicker, stronger, faster-growing hair with less shedding and just three to six months with Nutraful. For a limited time, Nutraful is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutraful.com and enter the promo code, H-S-P-Pod. Find out why Nutraful is the best-selling hair grow supplement brand at Nutraful.com.

That's spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-O-F-O-R-E-F-E-E-S. O-L.com promo code H-SP pod. That's neutraful.com promo code HSP pod. The higher you climb into the death zone of Mount Everest, the more bodies you're going to see. At first, it looks like bright patches in the snow along the path that kind of look like garbage, but as you get closer, those patches start to take shape.

They're all bodies, lying on their sides, half obscured by snowdrift. Some of them are wrapped in yellow climbing rope, like these technicolor moments. It is very scary to see. Some of these bodies are only partly visible, but others are just like how Honolor was. Completely visible and in near-perfect condition. They look like they just laid down to take a nap.

And that brings us to the next body that I want to tell you about in the death zone. It's a woman dressed in purple insulating gear and lying in perfect repose with her hands clasped on her chest. You can see her exposed face, which is icy white but serene. Today, the Sherpas call her sleeping beauty. Her name is Francis Arsentiev, and she was an accountant from Colorado who became a climbing enthusiast after meeting her husband, world-renowned Russian climber Sergei Arsentiev. Sergei was known as the Snow Leopard in Russia. Him and Francis climbed many mountains together and even named one after themselves when they were the first to make it to the top. Francis was the first American woman to summit several different mountains without oxygen.

That was kind of her and Sergei's thing. They liked to challenge themselves as much as possible, relying on their bodies alone with no special equipment. Eventually, they set their sights on Everest. Now, some people have climbed the mountain without oxygen. I know we've talked about how deadly the death zone is without supplemental oxygen, but it has been done. some Sherpas can do it because they grew up near and on the mountain. They're in better shape than we are, and they're just more used to the altitude. But to do it requires months of preparation.

Fitness regimens, including long sessions of uphill cardio, with increasingly large loads on your back, and strength training, focusing on your legs and your core. To do it essentially means you need to become an Olympic athlete. And even still, you are five times more likely to die in the mountain if you try to summit without supplemental oxygen, which is why, even with all that training, few Everest guides recommend climbing without oxygen. In fact, Francis had an 11-year-old son from a previous relationship who was very concerned about her decision to do so. This is a prime example of the psychology of many Everest climbers that I've read about. To them, climbing the mountain

is a calling. It's not just a hobby. It transcends their own safety, but it also transcends their family's concerns, even their young children. In May of 1998, Francis and Sergei began their attempt, and it was immediately off to a bad start, as I'm sure you can imagine. The couple spent far too much time at Camp 4, the final camp before the summit near where Hanelor died. They were burning a lot of calories and they were risking altitude sickness. They made two unsuccessful summit attempts turning their back after they had equipment issues. Finally, they did make it to the top. and Francis did become the first American woman to summit the mountain without oxygen.

She had achieved her lifelong goal. But because they had so little oxygen in their system, they were moving very slowly and they didn't start their descent until 4 p.m., which is way too late in the day. The sun was setting and it was starting to get dark fast. Once it was dark, they became separated. Sergei did ultimately make it back down to Camp 4

where he was devastated to learn that Francis hadn't made it yet. She was somewhere up higher in the death zone, but he didn't have the strength at that point to go back and try and help her. By the next morning, a different group of climbers found Francis on the trail. She was convulsing at that point. Her skin was frozen to where it looked porcelain white. They did their best to try to bring her further down the mountain, but they had to give up as their own oxygen was getting low

and they didn't want to die trying to save her. As the climbers descended, they encountered Sergei going back up after Francis holding a tank of oxygen for her. The next morning, climbers from that same group came across Francis again. Somehow, she was still alive, it seemed. And in a really eerie twist, she was repeating the phrase, quote, don't leave me. How could you do this to me? And I'm American. She passed away shortly after this sighting.

Now they found Sergei's axe next to Francis, but no sign of Sergei. And so they thought maybe he had left her to go save himself. Francis was eventually unclipped from the climbing rope and moved off to the side of the trail where she was left in that peaceful pose I described. She stayed there for 10 years before someone eventually moved her, and she was really a classic fixture of the mountain, becoming known by her nickname Sleeping Beauty. Sergei, however, was found in a crevasse the following year. In an attempt to save his wife's life, he had somehow fallen to his death.

The whole thing is tragic, but probably the most tragic part of all of this is a quote that I read from Francis's young son, who was left without a mother after the climb. He later said, quote, I don't know why she decided she had to do it without oxygen, but I think she felt like she needed to prove something. Now, what that was she needed to prove, we may never know. I don't even think her son knows, but it's the thing that I've been trying to decode while reading about these stories. What are these people trying to prove to themselves? Now, as we continue our cold and horrible trek to the top of Everest, soon another body comes into view. This one is at 27,720 feet, and it is quite small. It's a woman who doesn't look like she could have weighed more than 100 pounds. Her death seems extra tragic when you see

that Camp 4 is still in sight near her body. This body is also right next to a trail. If she could have made it just a little bit further, she may have survived. But as we know, a thousand feet on Everest might as well be 100,000. And unfortunately, this woman was caught in what would become the deadliest season on Everest up until that point. In 1996, 47-year-old, old Yasuko Namba aimed to become the second ever Japanese woman and the oldest woman ever to summit Everest. She had that same drive that those other women had. But she had chosen to attempt the summit at the same time as four other groups. The first group was adventure consultants led by a man named Rob Hall. Rob was a New Zealander and he had climbed Everest five times

more than any other non-Sherpa. His tours were expensive, but he was honestly the best guy that you could get. He was Yasuko's guide, and John Crackauer, the author who would go on to write the most famous account of this trip into the void was also in this group.

The second group had a totally different vibe. They were called Mountain Madness, and they were led by this guy, Scott Fisher. Now, Scott has been described as kind of the classic, cocky American tour guide who basically only toured well, elites on the mountain, he had bragged to his clients, quote,

we've got the big E figured out. We've totally got it wired. These days, I'm telling you, we've built a yellow brick road to the summit. In other words, he was starting to forget that no matter how well you map out the climb, Everest is still one of the most dangerous places in the world. There was also two other smaller tour groups from India and Taiwan summiting at this time. As always, once you get to Camp 4 at 26,000 feet, you're in the death zone and in the danger. You need to summit quickly within 20 hours and then get back down. But things were made even more complicated during the 1996 season when a storm began brewing in the Himalayas. Forecasters predicted that the storm would reach Everest and make it unclimable for weeks.

We're talking hurricane force winds and temperatures that could instantly freeze your eyeballs and blind you or freeze your lungs while you're trying to breathe in. By May 9, 1996, the four groups had made it to camp four and they started to trek. to the summit at 11 p.m. so they could get ahead of this storm. Temperatures were far below zero, visibility was low, and everyone was making a mad dash to the top. And then, at 27,600 feet, the worst thing that could have happened, happened, a traffic jam. There were over 30 people lined up waiting to climb to the top. Even worse, there had been a communication error between the Sherpas, Scott Fisher, and Rob Hall.

And there were no ropes pre-installed to help these climbers along the path. So so much for that yellow brick road, Scott. But Scott had promised his clients that he could take them easily to the top. And he was already looking kind of dumb now that he had made it so close and would have to have his group turn around because of his communication error. He would look even worse, he thought, if the nine people paying him hundreds of thousands of combined dollars had wasted their money. They decided that they were going to wait a few hours into the early morning of May

10th for the ropes to be installed. And once those ropes were, the groups all continued on. Now, later that day, Yasuko and her expedition finally made it to the top at 2.30 p.m. She achieved her goal of becoming the second Japanese woman and the oldest woman to ever summit Everest up to that point. But she had to turn around and book it back down the mountain before she ran. out of oxygen. Scott Fisher and the last of his expedition didn't even get to the top until 3.45 p.m. as the sun was starting to set. Everyone in his group was really excited to have made it all the way up until they noticed that Scott looked really bad. He was nauseous and he was dizzy. He could barely stay up on his feet. The overconfident American expedition leader had

really bad altitude sickness. And even worse, the storm was still raging towards them. Cloud soon filled the sky and snow flurries began tumbling down. The climbers and the guides who led them there had allowed the storm to catch up to them. By 4 p.m., just 15 minutes after Scott and his team summited, the storm hit the mountain, dropping temperatures to 40 degrees below zero and destroying visibility. Wind whipped around everyone at extreme speeds and the wind chill made it feel like it was 100 degrees below zero. Breathing without oxygen or taking off any protective covering was now immediately deadly. Basically, if you even took your glove off, you would need to have your hand amputated because of the frostbite. Scott Fisher's condition was also deteriorating at this

point. Sherpas tried to help him down the mountain, but he could barely move, barely hold onto the ropes. Finally, he told them that they should leave him there to save themselves. So now it was on Rob Hall, the Sherpas, and a few other expedition company members to get clients from both expeditions down safely. Yusuko struggled to even see the lines ahead of her. She had no idea where she was, completely stuck in this white void, and soon she was out of oxygen in her tank. She had no choice but to try and breathe the freezing air around her to save herself. And when you do that, you begin to rapidly freeze as well from the inside. Her blood vessels constricted, desperate to get more oxygen, capillaries in her lungs and brain began to burst,

filling her cranium and her lungs with blood, and eventually she collapsed, the terrible winds whipping around her. But what's horrible about being on her, Everest and freezing to death like this is you're conscious for a while and you feel yourself as your body slowly starts to shut down. Now incredibly, she was still alive when the weather briefly cleared the next day on May 11th. Some of her team members had come back up to find her and other missing climbers. It was horrific. They literally had to crack a layer of ice on her face to see if she was still alive. They found out that she was, she was breathing and she still had a little bit of a pulse, but it might have been better if she was already dead because they decided that

there was nothing they could do for her. There were other people to save on the mountain, and they decided that she was past the point of any realistic rescue. Everyone was hurting on some level, either from frostbite or altitude sickness. Every trip up to save people put them at greater risk. They had to leave her and just keep moving. Rob Hall, and other expedition members kept going back and forth up the mountain until they saved everyone that they could. And eventually, Rob's body was pushed to its limits as well. He sat down, his breathing slowed, and pretty shortly after that, he passed away. In the end, the May 1996 climbing season proved to be the deadliest in Everest history up until that point. Eight people

from the combined expeditions died and several others lost limbs, fingers, and toes to frostbite. John Crackauer was on the climb as a reporter for Outside Magazine and in his article and subsequent book he blasted the guides

for their risky decision making. He highlighted for the general public how Everest had become this decadent endeavor for the rich, one which cost several their lives and how this puts other climbers at risk because people like Scott and like Rob feel like they have to continue on in dangerous conditions because their clients

have paid so much money. Or because their clients who have paid so much money are making them feel bad for not continuing the hike. They feel like they're wasting their money. So it's a lose lose for everyone. Yasuko's husband eventually funded an expedition that brought her body down the mountain. But today, hikers that take the same route see several bodies all along the path close enough to touch. And that morbidly brings me to our next stop, just a few hundred feet up from where Yasuko died. It's a cave where two men sit side by side for all of eternity. At this point in our climb, we're now at 27,890 feet, just over a thousand feet from the top of Mount Everest. A small dark cave appears off the right side of the path, providing a nice

overlook. The Sherpas know this as green boots cave. There's not one, but two bodies in this small cave. One is hunched over with its face obscured. The corpse has on a pair of bright green hiking boots, hence the name of the cave. Though no positive ID has ever been made, it's believed that green boots was an Indian man named Siwang Paljor. He loved to climb and even became a member of the Indo-Tibetan border police so that he could work on the mountain. He, along with two of his fellow border policemen, died in the 1996 storm. There is a little bit of debate if the body is his or one of his friends. But next to him is an even stranger body.

It's a man sitting with his knees pushed up to his chin. He looks lonely as he stares out into the distance. This is David Sharp, a man who tried to climb Mount Everest without an oxygen tank, alone. His case is one of the most extreme instances of adventurism that we're going to cover today. David came from seemingly humble beginnings. He was an engineer from England. He had a successful climbing career up until that point. He climbed some of the world's tallest mountains without oxygen, but Everest really called to him. David actually first tried to climb Everest with a guide in 2003, but he lost two toes to frostbite, a mere 650 feet from

the top. He tried again in 2004, also with a guide, and supposedly he clashed with this guide over not using oxygen. And because of this, they didn't make it to the top. So after that, David was pretty fed up. This directly led to his May 2006 climb, where he decided that he was just going to go completely alone. He booked through a company called Asian trekking, which is run by Sherpas and basically gives a permit to anyone willing to pay. As a result, they had the majority of climbers that needed to be rescued from the mountain. But they gave David what he wanted, and he only had to pay $6,000 as opposed to $30,000 that were charged by other companies.

So with that, he started his assent. No oxygen, no Sherpa to tell him to turn around if it got unsafe. He didn't even take a radio in case anything happened to him. Now, some people believe that David did this because he knew he would die on the mountain. But from what we know, he just wanted to prove that he could do the climb all on his own. But no one would ever report seeing David at the top. It seems like he did not make it. And instead, he climbed inside of the Green Boots Cave for Shelter on the night of May 14, 2006, the coldest night of that season.

Dozens of climbers found him there shivering, suffering from hypothermia and altitude sickness, sitting next to the already dead body of green boots himself. He kept muttering, reportedly, my name is David Sharp, I'm with Asian trekking, and I just want to sleep. Some people criticize the other climbers when they learned how many people had passed David without helping, but that, like we said, is the reality of the death zone. You can't really stop to help others

or you risk running out of oxygen and dying yourself or not making it to the top. And how can you blame someone who didn't want to die for a man that didn't take any safety precautions while climbing. Asian trekking also doesn't necessarily have a responsibility to everyone who wants to test themselves against the mountain.

They're not babysitters. What people do once they have their permit is on them. David's arrogance and climbing alone without oxygen meant that he gave up the right to expect anyone to save him. This episode is brought to you by OneSkin. If you're like me, your skin needs

little extra care as the weather gets colder and drier. Everything affects my skin, travel, stress, hormones, humidity, basically everything that is happening right now. And that's why I've been sticking with one skin. At their core is their patented OS1 peptide. The first ingredient proven to target senescent cells, the root cause of wrinkles, crepiness, and loss of elasticity, all key signs of skin aging. And these results have now been validated in five different clinical studies. One skin also just launched their limited edition holiday sets, including the nightly rewind gift set, which adds the perfect touch of luxury to your gift list. It's the ultimate upgrade to any nightly ritual, featuring their best-selling face moisturizer, their brand new peptide lip

mask, and a sculpting guasha tool. Each element is designed to work together as your body enters its natural nightly repair mode. Helping renew skin at the cellular level for stronger, smoother, and more youthful looking complexion. For a limited time, try one skin for 15% off using code HSP at oneskin.com slash HSP. They'll ask you where you heard about them and please support our show and tell them that we sent you. This episode is brought to you by Bobby. As someone who is about to be a first time mom, it is very overwhelming getting everyone's recommendation on baby products. Everyone has opinions on everything from swaddles to bottles to sleep schedules and especially formulas. However, I will say there is one formula that keeps getting recommended to me

over and over again, and that is Bobby. Bobby is a USDA organic European-style formula that helps parents feed with confidence, no matter what their journey looks like. Bobby knows that there's a bunch of different ways to feed your baby. You can exclusively formula feed. There's also combo feeding. Sometimes you just need a backup can in the pantry. Bobby has your back with clean, high-quality infant formulas modeled after breast milk, with ingredients that you can trust also. And honestly, that's my biggest concern with every purchase. Is it safe? With Bobby, I know I'm in good hands because every batch goes through 2,000 plus safety and quality tests plus third-party testing before it ever leaves their U.S. manufacturing facility.

Founded by moms, trusted by parents, and loved by 700,000 plus babies. If you want to feel good about what's in your baby's bottle, get 10% off with code HSP at highbobby.com. That's hibobbibi.com promo code HSP. This episode is brought to you by Symbiotica. Staying on top of your health journey can be really tricky. I'm on the go a lot and it's becoming increasingly harder to make sure that I'm getting everything I need. And that's where symbiotica comes in.

One of my favorite products of symbioticas is their magnesium L3 and 8. I personally am a migraine sufferer, so I love taking magnesium. It also helps me with my leg cramps that I've been getting at night. But magnesium can also help support stress management, restful sleep. It also can enhance your focus. Symbiotica's magnesium L3 and 8 comes in a delicious vanilla cream flavor. that I can take on its own or sometimes I mix it into my morning coffee. Another favorite of everyone in my home is the liposomal vitamin C.

It comes in citrus vanilla and it's an immunity booster, but it also promotes collagen production and glowing skin. For listeners of heart starts pounding, you can go to symbiotica.com slash heart starts pounding for 20% off plus free shipping. That's symbiotica, C-Y-M-B-I-O-T-I-K-A dot com slash heart starts pounding for 20% off plus free shipping. Now, this last body that I want to tell you about on the mountain is actually the foot that was recovered last year. When this foot was found, it was still wrapped in a shoe and a sock

that both looked pretty old. The sock even had a name stitched into it, A.C. Irvine. Now, before there were a bunch of privileged elites climbing the mountain, there were simple adventurers just trying to see if it could be done. The first people to make it to the top and come back down alive were New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who's one of the most famous mountaineers of all time, and a Nepalese Indian climbing enthusiast and Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay. They did this climb in 1953. Tenzing is still incredibly famous for doing this hike. But some of the first people to try to summit the mountain actually disappeared while

doing so. They were a pair of Englishmen named George Lee Mallory and Andrew Irvine, also known as Sandy. This happened in 1924. Now, George Mallory was an English teacher, a World War I veteran, and an adventurer, a real Indiana Jones type. He joined expeditions to Everest in 1921 and 1922, both of which ended in failure and the deaths of multiple Sherpas. He wasn't very excited to go on the final expedition in 1924, but he didn't want to miss out on making it to the summit. He left behind a wife and three kids who he had barely seen in 10 years of marriage, but before he left, he told his wife that he was going to bring a photo of her with him

and that if he made it to the top, he would leave it there. And with that, he took off. He was just 38 at the time. He was joined by a 22-year-old named Sandy Irvine, among others. Sandy was an engineering student who had devised more efficient oxygen bottles and masks that could theoretically help the expedition reach the summit this time. Otherwise, they only had leather boots and cotton and wool jackets. they would have been incredibly cold the entire journey up.

This expedition had 12 English explorers in total and dozens of Sherpas. They reached base camp in April and they had until June to make it to the top before the weather got really bad because there's a really small window of time each year where the weather won't automatically kill you. By June 8th, 1924, they reached 26,000 feet, the area that we've been calling the death zone. A storm was approaching the mountain and the group wanted to be. to descend to a lower camp, but George and Sandy decided to make a run for the top using Sandy's new oxygen bottles. That was the last time they were ever seen alive, and it would actually be decades before either of their bodies were ever found. In 1933, a new British

expedition found an axe belonging to Sandy in the death zone, though it was still very far from the peak. Later that same year, a Chinese expedition found one of Sandy's oxygen bottles. George's body was finally discovered in 1999, more than 70 years later, by an expedition that was specifically looking for it. He was found face down with his arms spread out, and you could still read the name on the back of his shirt. The saddest part was he had a rope tied around his waist, so it seemed like he and Sandy were trying to get back down and were probably tethered together. Something must have happened, a storm or an avalanche that sent them falling and ultimately separated them. It looked like the rope had squeezed the life out of him. Sandy's foot wouldn't be found

for another 25 years in 2024, but we have to wonder, did they make it to the summit before they died? Because that would make them the first people to ever do so. From the way that George was found, it seemed like they died on their way down, not on their way up. If they were coming down from the peak, then that would have made them the first two people to ever reach the top of Everest. years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norge. Well, the search team that found George's body searched it thoroughly, looking for the missing key, the photo of his wife. And they found that he did not have a picture of her on him when he died. Is it possible that the photo of her is still up at the peak of Mount Everest, frozen in ice, there forever? It could be, which would have marked

an incredible feat for George, though I'm sure if we were to ask his wife, who was left to raise their children alone after George's disappearance, and who never knew what happened to her husband for the rest of her life, I think she would probably say that it wasn't worth it. And with that, we have completed our hike on Everest, up and down, out of the death zone, seeing the bodies that are scattered on the mountain along the way. I mean, this was just a couple of them, too. There are over 200 bodies still on the mountain. And now I want to hear about what you guys think.

What is it about Everest that calls to people? I am genuinely curious what you think. You can leave me a comment wherever you listen. Is it just blind confidence that people have? Is it hubris? Do some people just legitimately not care what happens to them? Now, if you want to join me over on footnotes on Patreon, I'm going to discuss with producer Matt a couple more bodies that didn't make it

into the episode. That's available to the High Council tier. So please join me over there if you want to hear about those. And then next week, we are going to switch it up a little bit. And I want to tell you about cults. Specifically, I want to tell you about real people who had very scary, real run-ins with cults. And the cult expert herself, Amanda Montel, author of cultish, is going to join me for that one. Now, I will see you there for that. And until then, stay warm, you guys. Ooh. Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kailen Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown.

Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs. Additional research and writing by Greg Castro. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding story or a case request. Check out heartsartspounding.com.