Green Boots
Encyclopedia
In Everest climbing parlance, Green Boots is the name given to the corpse of Indian climber Tsewang Paljor (b. 10 April 1968) on the Northeast ridge route of Mount Everest
. There is little doubt that the body is that of Paljor, who was wearing green Koflach boots on the day he and two others apparently summited. On the way down, he fell victim to exposure in the storm of May 10th 1996, one among the eight who died that day. Since his death his corpse lies on the popular northern route, his body is encountered frequently and came to be known as Green Boots.
Paljor was born in Sakti village in Leh (Jammu and Kashmir
). He joined the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
as a constable in 1986. He was part of the first Indian team to attempt climbing the peak from the Northeast route.
is well known in the mountaineering circles for the deaths of eight climbers on the 10-11 May 1996. Thanks to Jon Krakauer
's book Into Thin Air
, the two movies based on that book, and Anatoli Boukreev
's book "The Climb
", the names of Rob Hall
, Scott Fischer
, Yasuko Namba
, Doug Hansen and Andy Harris are well known. Less well-known are the other three fatalities of the day, who were the climbers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
(ITBP) expedition from India. The expedition was led by Commandant (equiv to Lt Col) Mohinder Singh, and is credited as being the first Indian ascent of Everest from the East side.
On 10 May 1996, Subedar Tsewang Samanla
, Lance Naik (equiv to Lance Corporal) Dorje Morup
, and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor got caught in the blizzard short of the summit. While three of the six-member team turned down, Samanla, Paljor and Morup decided to go for the summit At around 6.00pm (3.45pm Nepal Time), the three climbers radioed to their expedition leader that they had arrived at the summit.
There is dispute whether the three actually reached the summit or not. Krakauer claims that the climbers were at 28,550 feet, roughly 500 feet short of the top most point. This is based on the interview given by a later Japanese team to the London Financial Express. Due to bad visibility and thick clouds which obscured the summit, the climbers believed they had reached the top. They left an offering of prayer flags, katas, and piton
s. Here the leader Samanla decided to spend extra time for religious ceremonies and instructed the other two to move down.
There was no radio contact after that. Back at the camps below, anxious team members saw two headlamps moving slightly above the second step – at 8570 meters. None of the three managed to come back to high camp at 8320 meters.
The Indian expedition leader told later, "The Japanese had initially pledged to help the search for the missing Indians. But hours later, they pressed on with their attempt to reach the summit, despite bad weather."
The Japanese team denied that they had ever encountered the dying climbers on the way up.
Captain Kohli, an official of the Indian Mountaineering Federation, who earlier had denounced the Japanese, later retracted his claim that the Japanese had reported meeting the Indians on 10 May.
"The ITBP accepted the Fukuoka party statements that they neither abandoned nor refused to help the Indians." The ITBP's director general "commented that a misunderstanding arose from communication difficulties between Indian attack party members and their Base Camp."
It is not known as to when the term Green Boots came into Everest parlance. Over the years it became a common term as all the expeditions from the north side encountered the body of the Indian Climber curled up in the limestone alcove cave. The cave is located at 27,890 feet (8 500 m), and is littered with spent oxygen bottles. Paljor was the only one found by the Japanese climbers, shortly above first step. The rock cave is in the same area.
is a British climber who was on the mountain on that fatal day in 1996, leading a South African expedition. He was at camp 4 during the storm and, having returned to basecamp for 5 days rest, reached the top a couple of weeks later. Claiming that the body of the climber has continued to haunt him, Woodall returned to the mountain in 2007 with a different mission: not to summit but to help fallen climbers find their last resting place in dignity. They included Francys Arsentiev
, the first American woman to have summited Mt Everest without bottled oxygen in 1998. He plans to return in 2011 to move the body of Tsewang Paljor.
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
. There is little doubt that the body is that of Paljor, who was wearing green Koflach boots on the day he and two others apparently summited. On the way down, he fell victim to exposure in the storm of May 10th 1996, one among the eight who died that day. Since his death his corpse lies on the popular northern route, his body is encountered frequently and came to be known as Green Boots.
Paljor was born in Sakti village in Leh (Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
). He joined the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
Indo-Tibetan Border Police
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police is an Indian force conceived on October 24, 1962 for security along the India's border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, border covering 2115 kilometres...
as a constable in 1986. He was part of the first Indian team to attempt climbing the peak from the Northeast route.
1996 Indo-Tibetan Border Police Everest Expedition
The Everest disaster of 19961996 Everest Disaster
The 1996 Mount Everest disaster refers to the events of 10-11 May 1996, when eight people died on Mount Everest during summit attempts. In the entire season, fifteen people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Mount Everest's history...
is well known in the mountaineering circles for the deaths of eight climbers on the 10-11 May 1996. Thanks to Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, primarily known for his writing about the outdoors and mountain-climbing...
's book Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997 bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It details the author's presence at Mount Everest during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a 'rogue storm'...
, the two movies based on that book, and Anatoli Boukreev
Anatoli Boukreev
Anatoli Nikoliavich Boukreev, , was a Kazakhstani climber who made ascents of seven of the 8,000 metre peaks without supplemental oxygen. In total he made 18 successful ascents on peaks above 8000 m . Boukreev was lost under an avalanche on Annapurna...
's book "The Climb
The Climb (book)
The Climb is an account by Russian mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev of the 1996 Everest Disaster, during which eight climbers lost their lives on Mount Everest. The co-author, G...
", the names of Rob Hall
Rob Hall
Rob Hall , a native of New Zealand, was a mountaineer best known for being head guide of a 1996 Mount Everest expedition in which he, a fellow guide, and two clients perished. A best-selling account of the expedition was given in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air...
, Scott Fischer
Scott Fischer
Scott E. Fischer was an American climber and guide, and the first American to summit 27,940-foot Lhotse, fourth highest mountain in the world.-Career:...
, Yasuko Namba
Yasuko Namba
was famous in her native Japan for becoming the second Japanese woman to reach all of the Seven Summits including Everest, where she died. Namba worked as a businesswoman for Federal Express in Japan, but her hobby of mountaineering took her all over the world. She first summitted Kilimanjaro...
, Doug Hansen and Andy Harris are well known. Less well-known are the other three fatalities of the day, who were the climbers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
Indo-Tibetan Border Police
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police is an Indian force conceived on October 24, 1962 for security along the India's border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, border covering 2115 kilometres...
(ITBP) expedition from India. The expedition was led by Commandant (equiv to Lt Col) Mohinder Singh, and is credited as being the first Indian ascent of Everest from the East side.
On 10 May 1996, Subedar Tsewang Samanla
Tsewang Samanla
T.Samanla was one among three Indians who died on Mount Everest in 1996 Mount Everest disaster. He was born on 14 Sept 1957 in village Tia , District Khalsi in Leh . He joined ITBP as a constable in 1969. Climed Mt. Everest from North Col on 10 May 1996 to become member of the First Indian team to...
, Lance Naik (equiv to Lance Corporal) Dorje Morup
Dorje Morup
Dorje Morup was one among three Indians who died on Mount Everest in 1996 Mount Everest disaster.He was born on 01 Oct 1948 in village Skurbuchan in district Leh . He joined ITBP as a constable in 1969. Climed Mt. Everest from North Col on 10 May 1996 to become member of the First Indian team to...
, and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor got caught in the blizzard short of the summit. While three of the six-member team turned down, Samanla, Paljor and Morup decided to go for the summit At around 6.00pm (3.45pm Nepal Time), the three climbers radioed to their expedition leader that they had arrived at the summit.
There is dispute whether the three actually reached the summit or not. Krakauer claims that the climbers were at 28,550 feet, roughly 500 feet short of the top most point. This is based on the interview given by a later Japanese team to the London Financial Express. Due to bad visibility and thick clouds which obscured the summit, the climbers believed they had reached the top. They left an offering of prayer flags, katas, and piton
Piton
In climbing, a piton is a metal spike that is driven into a crack or seam in the rock with a hammer, and which acts as an anchor to protect the climber against the consequences of a fall, or to assist progress in aid climbing...
s. Here the leader Samanla decided to spend extra time for religious ceremonies and instructed the other two to move down.
There was no radio contact after that. Back at the camps below, anxious team members saw two headlamps moving slightly above the second step – at 8570 meters. None of the three managed to come back to high camp at 8320 meters.
Possible sightings by Japanese climbers
(All Times Beijing Time)- 06:15 Hiroshi Hanada and Eisuke Shigekawa (Fukuoka first attack party) departed Camp 6 (8,300 m). Three Sherpas had left in advance.
- 08:45 Radio call to BC to report nearing the ridge. Just below the ridge they met two men coming down a fixed rope. On the ridge another man appeared before the first snowfield. They could not be identified because all were wearing goggles and oxygen masks under hoods. The Fukuoka party, having no knowledge of missing Indians, thought they were Taiwan party members.
- 11:39 Radio call to BC to report passing the Second Step (8,600). They then saw two men at a distance of about 15 m from the ridge. Again, identification was impossible.
- 15:07 Hanada, Shigekawa and three Sherpas reached the summit.
- 15:30 Start descent. After passing the triangle snowfield they saw some unidentifiable object above the Second Step. Below the First Step, they saw one person on the fixed rope. Shigekawa stopped, therefore, and radioed BC. As he started moving again he met someone, who had possibly been on the fixed rope, standing nearby. They exchanged greeting, but he was still unable to identify him. Their oxygen was just enough to return to C6.
- 16:00 (approx) An Indian party member told the Fukuoka ABC that three men were missing. The Fukuoka party attempted to dispatch three Sherpas from C6 to rescue the Indians but disappearing daylight prevented their departure. Their request to Indian party members at C6 to join a rescue was refused. Also their offer of a radio so that the Indian party could talk to their leader in ABC was declined.
The Indian expedition leader told later, "The Japanese had initially pledged to help the search for the missing Indians. But hours later, they pressed on with their attempt to reach the summit, despite bad weather."
The Japanese team denied that they had ever encountered the dying climbers on the way up.
Captain Kohli, an official of the Indian Mountaineering Federation, who earlier had denounced the Japanese, later retracted his claim that the Japanese had reported meeting the Indians on 10 May.
"The ITBP accepted the Fukuoka party statements that they neither abandoned nor refused to help the Indians." The ITBP's director general "commented that a misunderstanding arose from communication difficulties between Indian attack party members and their Base Camp."
Green Boots
The term Green Boots originates from the green mountaineering boots the body still wears.It is not known as to when the term Green Boots came into Everest parlance. Over the years it became a common term as all the expeditions from the north side encountered the body of the Indian Climber curled up in the limestone alcove cave. The cave is located at 27,890 feet (8 500 m), and is littered with spent oxygen bottles. Paljor was the only one found by the Japanese climbers, shortly above first step. The rock cave is in the same area.
David Sharp
When the British mountaineer David Sharp died during his solo attempt in 2006, he was found in a hypothermic situation in "Green Boots' Cave". David Sharp would ultimately die of extreme cold, and his body was left lying a few feet from 'Green Boots'. It was theorised on the documentary Dying For Everest (broadcast on SKY 20.04.09) that some other climbers passed by David Sharp without offering assistance, believing him to be "Green Boots".Ian Woodall
Ian WoodallIan Woodall
Ian Woodall is a British mountain climber who has climbed Mount Everest several times.In 1996 Woodall was the leader of the controversial first South African Mount Everest expedition, during which one member of the party died...
is a British climber who was on the mountain on that fatal day in 1996, leading a South African expedition. He was at camp 4 during the storm and, having returned to basecamp for 5 days rest, reached the top a couple of weeks later. Claiming that the body of the climber has continued to haunt him, Woodall returned to the mountain in 2007 with a different mission: not to summit but to help fallen climbers find their last resting place in dignity. They included Francys Arsentiev
Francys Arsentiev
Francys Arsentiev became the first woman from the United States to reach the summit of Mount Everest without the aid of bottled oxygen, on May 22, 1998.-Biography:...
, the first American woman to have summited Mt Everest without bottled oxygen in 1998. He plans to return in 2011 to move the body of Tsewang Paljor.
External links
- Photographs of the deceased Climbers in the ITBP Martyrs Gallery
- Photo of Green Boots' cave - The dead bodies have been 'whitened out'.
- Photo of Green Boots
- Photograph of Green Boots' body. (German language site)
- Footage of Green Boots' Body Shot starts around 45 second mark.
- Painting of Green Boot Cave
