Posted: Oct 30, 2009 11:24 am EST
(MountEverest.net) "I wonder if I could maybe try to write a ghost story for Halloween," proposed a mountain editor, with a caution: "Problem is the scariest stories on Everest are true."

We won't go there. Instead, join us for some of the lighter tales fit for the weekend's events.

Shadows begging for food in the deathzone

In May 2004, Pemba Dorjee returned to BC from Everest summit with a (debated) speed record. The Sherpa claimed he had seen black shadows on the mountain’s upper sections.

They were ghosts of dead climbers, Pemba believed, haunting the mountain until funeral rites were performed to release their souls. “When I was on my way to setting the record, I stopped briefly at three points between 8,000 and 8,748 meters to drink tea,” Pemba told AFP.

“When I stopped at a mound of rocks I saw some spirits in the form of black shadows coming toward me, stretching their hands and begging for something to eat. I think those were the spirits of the many mountaineers killed during and after the ascent of Mount Everest – many of their bodies are still on the mountain.”

Distraction from the challenged speed record, critics said of Pemba's sightings, or early signs of HACE. But Sherpas don't take their ghosts lightly.

“We believe in the existence of the spirits of the dead and feel the need to perform death rituals,” Nepal Mountaineering Association’s president Ang Tsering Sherpa reportedly said back then. With that, Juniper fires burn, prayers are chanted, rice is thrown, celestial signs have to be right and visiting comets are not welcome on the Himalayan peaks around climbing season.

Irvine: a ghost and a gentleman

Sherpas are not alone. On September 24th, 1975 Dougal Haston and Doug Scott became the first Britons to summit Everest (or not - ask Mallory & Irvine researchers).

Back in BC after a remarkable ascent up the previously unclimbed SW face, the climbers reportedly stated they felt some kind of presence in a bivouac right before summit day. The ghost shared their snow hole and encouraged them during the final hours of their climb.

Hypoxia, ruled the expedition docs but the legend was already there: the visiting spirit was no other than 1924’ pioneer Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, dropping by to greet his fellow-Brits in proper English manner!

Irvine, whose body has not yet been found, has since become the “official Everest ghost in resident.”

The Yeti

Two other characters strongly linked to Everest History got fame for the best-known Himalayan mystery creature: The Abominable Snowman.

Explorer and pioneer Eric Shipton reportedly photographed yeti’s footprints while exploring Everest’s surroundings (lower Menlung la glacier) in November 1951. The footprint was size 42 continental but nearly twice as broad according to Shipton’s mate Michael Ward, with imprint of a big toe. "We noticed that whenever a narrow 6-inch-wide crevasse was crossed there seemed to be claw marks in the snow at the end of the toe imprints,” Ward added.

Locals describe the beast as a 5 feet-tall ape-humanoid creature walking on two legs and giving off a high-pitch sound. A number of supposedly yeti remains are kept in some monasteries, such as Khumjung, featuring a (barely credible) yeti scalp.

Shipton’s 1951 images marked a milestone though. He was already a prestigious explorer, not suspect of publicity seeking, so the event triggered some scientific research. A remarkable number of climbers have since allegedly seen tracks or even the Abominable Snowman itself, although no proof has been provided.

First 14x8000er summiteer Reinhold Messner reported a yeti showed up in 1986 at Mekong River’s headwaters in Tibet from behind a tree at sunset. "The creature towered menacingly, its face a gray shadow, its body a black outline,” Messner recalled. “Covered with hair, it stood upright on two short legs and had powerful arms." Later Messner concluded the creature might have been a Tibetan bear.

The real mountain ghosts

Contrary to the fables Mountains Ghosts are real, materializing as mirage images during certain atmospheric effects. Also real is the thin air, the unforgiving terrain, the exhaustion, frozen corpses and the “overwhelming presence of death” described by so many high altitude mountaineers on the edge.

Ghost tales shared on a windy night are comforting in light of the objective risks awaiting climbers outside their tents. There you are likely to call on all Gods available, just in case.

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