In May 2005, helicopter pilot Didier Delsalle did what was impossible: landing at the top of Mount Everest on a helicopter. Incidentally, the first summit of the Everest was completed by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary in the same month more than half a century ago, in 1953. These two people after whom the most dangerous airport, i.e., Lukla Airport, is named, did what was thought hitherto impossible, i.e., climbing Mt. Everest.
Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler later went on to do something that was thought to be as crazy as, if not crazier than, climbing Everest: climb it without supplemental oxygen. At a time when helicopter tours and rescues weren’t a regularity in the Everest region, a lot of people have perished while trying to ascend Everest or during their descent from this tallest Mountain. The Sleeping Beauty of Everest, Francys Arsentiev, is one such name. [Incidentally, her death took place in the month of May as well]
Francys Arsentiev – The Sleeping Beauty of Mount Everest: Her Story
In May 1998, Francys Arsentiev dared to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen. And she was successful in doing so. But during the descent, things started to go awry for her as well as her husband, Sergei. Although both of them had scaled several peaks in Russia, the two couldn’t survive the ill fate of death that was to befall them on their way down.
On May 24, she and her husband were on their way down from the top of the world. A team from Uzbekistan that which was on the way to scale Everest encountered them a few hundred meters from the peak. Francys appeared to be half-conscious and racked with frostbite. The team tried to help her, but the extreme weather of Everest, coupled with the less-than-forgiving terrain, meant that the Uzbek team had to run for cover and descend to lower altitudes.
Trash collected at the Everest base camp.
All the while, Francis’ health got progressively worse, and she succumbed to Mount Everest. It was only a decade or so later that the team dubbed “The Tao of Everest” was able to locate her body, give it a deserved ritual, and drop it to a lower altitude making sure that her body was not in plain sight en route to Everest, which is known as Chomolungma i.e. “Holy Mother” in the Tibetan language.
Although she didn’t get to taste the glory of becoming the first American woman to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen, Francys is remembered as the “Sleeping Beauty of Everest”.
Why did Francys get the name “Sleeping Beauty of Everest”?
The wife of British Climber Ian Woodall and Cathy O’Dowd, who was later to become Ian’s wife, quoted by an English newspaper called The Guardian, touched upon the harrowing times they had had while they met Francys just before her death. (Ian and Cathy, alongside some Uzbek climbers, were only a few hundred meters from the top of Everest before they met a dilapidated Francys):
“Ian and Jangbu had been trying to pull the woman (Francys Arsentiev) into an upright position. Ian thought that if she could take some of her weight on her feet, even if she could not actually walk, it might be possible to move her down the Mountain with a climber at each shoulder. However, her legs simply crumpled under her weight, as useless as strands of spaghetti”.
Photo: Airbus
The couple whom we’ve quoted above and one who encountered Francys, stayed with the lady who was to later earn the moniker of the “Sleeping Beauty in Everesst” had stayed with her for nearly an hour, when the temperature was around -30 C. They had met her on such unstable, snow-steeped slope that warming their feet by even stamping wasn’t possible. Such cold temperatures, coupled with the possibility of an all out white out is why choppers don’t perform rescue operations too high- the highest rescue ever in the Everest region was around 7,800 meters. Helicopters such as the Airbus A350B3 (the one that landed at the top of Everest) generally have a service ceiling of around 7,000 meters.
Here are the couple’s words as quoted in the Guardian:
“The decision to leave Fran came upon us without much discussion…….. What hope I had faded in the face of her incoherence, her physical incapacity……. She had stopped talking and seemed to have sunk into unconsciousness. The thought of going on was intolerable……I was emotionally shattered. I had never encountered anything like this. I had passed bodies, I had had friends not come back, but I had never watched anyone die. Nor had I had to decide to leave them.”
What Were Francys Arsentiev’s Last Words?
When hypothermia seeps into the bones, climbers are seen to have erratic behavior, such as tearing off their clothes. Cathay O’Dowd reported that she had suspected the person who would later be immortalized as the “Sleeping Beauty of Everest” to have done the same in a bout of acute hypothermia.
When Cathay met Francis about only 240 meters from the summit of Mt Everest, she wanted to help her. But she couldn’t do it on her own. So she went to call her team, which was further away from them. Cathay reported Francys’ last words, “Don’t leave me” followed by a final “Why Are you doing this to me?”
Francys’s words, which even for a reader are bordering on the edge of “haunting”, might still be echoing in Cathay’s memories. One can only guess how much more potent they must be for someone who experienced this firsthand,
Everest Expedition
There are various reasons why people undertake the expedition to Mount Everest. The biggest of them should be the sheer thrill of it. This thrill drives sports lovers, mountaineers, environment lovers, and people from various walks of life to the top of the world.
The first successful ascent to Everest saw a team of 320 porters that carried supplies to the remoteness of Everest. A decade later, this number almost tripled as an American expedition comprising a dozen individuals made it to Everest. It is widely reported that more than 6000 people have had successful expeditions to Everest.
Mind Bending records during Everest Expeditions:
- The oldest person to climb Everest: In 2019, a 74-year-old Japanese mountaineer, Yuichiro Miura, became the oldest to summit Mount Everest. This was his third time reaching the summit.
- Fastest ascent: In 2019, Nepali mountaineer, Nirmal Purja, set the record for the fastest ascent of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, including Mount Everest. He completed the feat in just 189 days.
- First double amputee to climb Everest: In 2006, New Zealand mountaineer, Mark Inglis, became the first double amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- The first person to ski down Everest: In 2000, Italian mountaineer, Hans Kammerlander, became the first person to ski down Mount Everest’s south side.
- Most summits: Sherpa mountaineer, Kami Rita, holds the record for the most summits of Mount Everest. He has reached the summit 25 times as of 2021.
- First blind person to climb Everest: In 2001, American mountaineer, Erik Weihenmayer, became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- Most consecutive days on the summit: In 2017, Spanish climber, Kilian Jornet, spent 26 hours on the summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen, which is the longest anyone has ever stayed on the summit.
Climbing Everest Without Oxygen
Climbing Everest without oxygen is a risky prospect, especially for those who don’t come from high-altitude regions or don’t have the physique/genes/physicality/luck (or all of these factors combined) that can help them scale Everest without oxygen.
Photo: Karan Bhatta | aviospace.org
One-half of the two people who first climbed Everest without oxygen- Reinhold Messner- had ascended all 14 peaks of the world, which are higher than 8000 meters (often dubbed as eight-thousanders) without supplemental oxygen by 1986.
The problem of throwing used-up oxygen cylinders during the ascent to the Base Camp has brought a lot of environmental issues. The theft of oxygen cylinders while on the way to Everest is another problem with which the Everest region has become notorious.
Final Thoughts
One can climb to the top of the world without oxygen like Francys, the sleeping beauty, did. But the eventual death that was to sink her into the snowy beds of Everest is something that everybody must be wary of. And since the land up to Everest is so treacherous, rescue is extremely difficult.
Lukla, Kathmandu, & Co: A brief guide to all the airports of Nepal
The Everest region has always been home to some of the most thrilling airports in the world- the Synagboche Airport that lies near the village of Khumjung, the Mingbo Airport, an airport that was more dangerous than Lukla, and Syangboche, an aerdrome that trainer pilots find technically more challenging than Lukla. It is thrill of such things that draws people to Everest. It is because of these reasons that John Krauker said that the Everest region was a veritable “magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics”. The sleeping beauty of Everest falls in the last of these three categories.