The Indian government has definitely identified the mountain’s most famous body. Now comes the dangerous, expensive reality of cutting him out of the ice.
For nearly 30 years, climbers climbing the Northeast Ridge on Mount Everest have passed through green boots, a universal, cold milestone. (Photo: Public domain)
Published July 3, 2026 04:33 am
The Indian government is planning a high-risk extraction mission to the Tibetan side of Mount Everest in the summer of 2026 to eventually bring home the remains of the world-famous corpse known as the “Green Boots.” The plan involves an elite team of Sherpas cutting his body from a block of ice at an altitude of 28,000 feet in an area known as the Death Zone and then taking him home.
For nearly 30 years, climbers climbing the Northeast Ridge on Mount Everest shared a universal, thrilling milestone. Within the hypoxic vacuum of the Death Zone, an area where there is too little oxygen to sustain human life, there is a passageway that leads through a rocky cave. The frozen body of a climber wearing bright green mountaineering boots is curled up as if taking a nap. Over the years, this body has become the most famous of the approximately 200 bodies on Everest.
Green Boots and the bodies of others met the same fate. Experts say they are left on the mountainside because it is both too dangerous and expensive to recover them.
“The reality of body recovery is that it’s all about money,” said Everest guide Willie Benegas. Outside. The Argentine-American climber has climbed the mountain 14 times, first in 1999 and most recently in 2025, and has also participated in rescue and body recovery operations.
“It costs a lot of money to bring someone down, and if the family doesn’t have the money, no one will do it,” Benegas said.
For years, no one knew who the Green Boots were, and no one could pay the bill for the recovery expedition. Hence his body remained on the mountain. Until recently, experts believed he was either Tsewang Paljor or Dorje Morup, two Indian soldiers and members of the country’s Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) who disappeared while trying to climb the peak on May 10, 1996.
Earlier this year, the Government of India The body was identified as Morup, and now government documents show ITBP is deputing an operation team to bring his body home.
Why is recovering bodies on Everest so difficult, dangerous and expensive?
For most climbers, Financial burden of climbing Mount Everest This is an even more difficult obstacle than the thin air, freezing temperatures and steep climbs. In 2025, climbing the world’s highest peak cost an average of $58,000. Coming into China from the north is more expensive than entering from southern Nepal, and climbing with an international guiding company is more expensive than hiring a local guide. Luxury expedition packages can cost even more—regularly above $200,000-And even up to $1 million.
Paying to recover a climber’s body can be more expensive than climbing the mountain in the first place. In 2024, Outside Spoke to local guides and rescue workers about the difficult task of recovering bodies on Everest. Major Aditya Karki of the Nepalese Army, who led an expedition to recover five bodies from the peak that year, estimated the cost of each body at that time to be approximately $75,000 to $80,000.
Recovering a body is much more difficult and dangerous than reaching the summit, Karki said. Even carrying a ten-pound oxygen canister to the top of Everest is exhausting. Carving a frozen, 180-pound body out of snow and ice, then dragging it up steep, technical terrain, sometimes under high winds or freezing temperatures, is a different story.
On the Chinese side of Everest, where Green Boots is located, recovery of bodies is particularly difficult. This route is more difficult than the standard South Col route from Nepal, and the Chinese permission process is stricter and more complex. For example, in 2026, the Chinese government inexplicably closed the entire mountain to all international expeditions.
“Up north, it’s logistically difficult to get the body down,” Benegas said. “Historically, bodies have stayed up there, especially if they’re above Camp IV, like Green Boots. It’s really technical up there at the top. You can’t just drag a body out; they have to be carried.”
Body improvement is not only a physically difficult task, but also psychologically difficult.
“We can’t think of it as just handling a dead body,” said Tshiring Jangbu, one of Karki’s team members. Outside In 2024. “We have to be respectful and safe.”
What’s next for Dorje Morup?
As part of its recovery mission, ITBP is looking for a highly specialized private agency with proven track record in high altitude logistics. The publicly released government contract requires that the operational team include at least six elite Sherpas who have successfully climbed Everest multiple times. Their order: to extract the remains from the death zone, navigate the complex geopolitical bureaucracy of the Chinese side of Everest, and then transport the bodies to India’s capital, Delhi, before October 2026.
The mission will be dangerous. By scheduling the extraction window between June and September 2026, the recovery team will work during Everest’s monsoon season. This is the time when almost all commercial expeditions have abandoned the mountain due to the prolonged, volatile, blinding storms that can cause unstable snowfall on the upper peaks within a few hours.
It won’t be easy, but if the ITBP team succeeds this summer, they will snatch one of the most terrifying milestones in Himalayan climbing and finally bring a fallen climber home.
