Everest summit. Photo / Getty Images
Every year, hundreds of brave mountaineers risk their lives to stand on the top of the world.
Many never make it home.
Mt Everest, standing at a whopping 8848m, is the highest point on earth - and also one of its deadliest places.
The last climbing season in which there were no recorded deaths was 1977.
This year has been one of the mountain's deadliest seasons since 2015, when earthquakes caused devastating avalanches, killing 19 climbers.
Many climbers on Everest fall to their deaths, some lose their lives to avalanches, and others succumb to exposure to the mountain's unforgiving climate.
In "The Death Zone" - above 7924m - oxygen levels drop to only one third of what it is at sea level, causing the body to slowly shut down, and the barometric pressure is so intense that each movement is a Herculean effort.
And human traffic jams within this zone are part of the reason so many lives have been lost this season.
More than 250 people remain at rest on the mountain, earning Mt Everest a second, far grimmer title: The world's largest open-air graveyard.
Missions to retrieve bodies can be impossible and many people have lost their own lives attempting to bring their loved ones home.
Those who never made it down from the mountain serve as grim markers, and their stories have become famous.
The body of Green Boots has been passed by almost every climber on their way to the death zone in recent years, his bright green hiking boots making him one of Everest's most famous "markers".
The true identity of Green Boots has never been confirmed, but he is believed to be Tsewang Paljor, an Indian mountaineer who attempted to scale Everest in 1996. Whether it is Paljor or one of his teammates is still uncertain.
Paljor was part of a four-man expedition to the summit from which only one man, Harbhajan Singh, survived.
Singh said he was forced to turn back because of worsening weather. He urged the other men to return with him to camp but they pushed on, consumed by a dangerous obsession known as "summit fever".
The men did actually make it to the summit, but were caught in a blizzard during their descent.
Paljor was not seen again until weary climbers went to rest in a cave and found him huddled there. That spot is now known as Green Boots' Cave.
A decade later, another climber joined Green Boots in his cave.
The death of David Sharp in 2006 sparked a moral debate about climbing culture.
Sharp, an experienced British climber, was attempting the dangerous feat of climbing the mountain alone.
Sharp stopped to rest in Green Boots' Cave and slowly died there, not far from Green Boots himself.
It is said about 40 climbers passed by as Sharp froze to death, noting he was in distress but not stopping to help.
New Zealander Mark Inglis and his team stated Sharp was beyond saving when they came across him.
It's thought other climbers may have mistaken him for Green Boots: a mistake Sir Edmund Hillary attributed at the time to summit fever.
"If you have someone who is in great need and you are still strong and energetic, then you have a duty, really, to give all you can to get the man down and getting to the summit becomes very secondary," Hillary told the Herald after hearing the news of Sharp's death.
"I think the whole attitude towards climbing Mt Everest has become rather horrifying," he added.
"The people just want to get to the top. They don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress and it doesn't impress me at all that they leave someone lying under a rock to die."
Francys Arsentiev, known to climbers as Sleeping Beauty, had the goal of being the first American woman to summit Everest without supplementary oxygen.
She succeeded on her third attempt with her husband Sergei in 1998, but died on the descent.
Francys and Sergei had become separated in the Death Zone, and Sergei turned back to camp. When he saw Francys had not returned he rushed back up the mountain with oxygen and medicine for his wife.
An Ursek team had discovered Francys, unable to move on her own. They carried her down as far as their own oxygen would allow before descending to camp.
They came across Sergei on his way to rescue Francys. It was the last time he was seen.
A full day later, Ian Woodall and Cathy O'Dowd found Francys, frostbitten and severely oxygen deprived.
Francys pleaded with them not to leave her, and the team spent a hour trying to save her.
When their own oxygen began to run out they were forced to make the difficult decision to leave her.
For nine years Francys lay on the First Step, until Woodall returned in 2007.
It was too dangerous to bring Francys down, but Woodall moved her off the path and covered her body, where Sleeping Beauty still rests.
In 1999 the oldest body on Everest was found, three-quarters of a century after his death in 1924.
George Mallory, a famous explorer of his time, had set out to become the first person to summit Everest.
When asked why he would do so, Mallory famously responded, "Because it's there".
On an unusually warm day, 75 years later, Mallory's body was found almost perfectly preserved, still wearing a tweed suit and surrounded by his primitive climbing equipment.
It's hard to know what really happened to Mallory, but an injury around his waist suggests he had been roped to another climber when he fell.
His death means we will sadly never know if Mallory achieved his goal of being the first man to reach the summit of Mt Everest.
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