Markus Kronthaler’s Body Going Home–Highest Mountain Recovery EVER!!

Markus Kronthaler’s body has been recovered.  This daring Expedition on Broad Peak was successfully initiated by Markus’ brother Georg.

Markus, who was climbing Broad Peak (8, 074 meters) last year, succumbed to exhaustion and dehydration after successfully making his summit bid.  His body was found near the summit by a team of climbers put together by his brother.  Georg, as well as the rest of the Welt de Berg Team members, will successfully go down in history after making the world’s highest altitude body recovery.

Georg Krothaler is hoping that his success at retrieving his brother’s body will help encourage other climbers that these recovery expeditions can succeed.

I don’t just want to bring my brother down—I want to change the ethical principles in high altitude climbing. We can’t only focus on our sport goals and thus walk literally over corpses—someone who had an accident doesn’t deserve to be left there like garbage.

This is hot on the tails of a very public debate that has been taking place in the climbing community regarding high-altitude rescues and recoverys.  Many people feel that if you get into trouble up high, there is not much that can be done.  Georg has proved that these can be done and carried out with a well thought out plan and the right people.

In August of this year another high-altitude recovery will be attempted in China.  An Expedition is currently in the works to bring down the body of Christine Boskoff from Mt. Genyen.  Boskoff, who was the current owner of Mountain Madness, died while climbing with Charlie Fowler in China last December.  Charlie Fowler’s body was recovered earlier this year.

Both of these efforts could have dramatic effects in the climbing world.  After the incident with David Sharp, where he was seemingly left to die high on the slope of Mt. Everest, it seems like people are really trying to make an effort to change climber’s ways of thinking.   In the past when a climber would get into trouble or even die in high-altitude, they were usually just left..the general thinking was that not a whole lot could be done.  Why risk a life for someone that was already dead, even if that person was not already dead, they soon would be.

I wrote a controversial piece a few months back that recieved alot of attention in the climbing community.  “David Sharpe HAD to die,” details some of the issues that have been taking place, as well as outlines why, perhaps, David had to die—to save other climbers lives.

Today’s news of Markus Kronthaler’s body being successfully recovered from near the top of an 8,000 meter peak should provoke more thought into this issue.

George Kronthaler deserves the highest of accolades for getting this attempt off the ground and staying with it–making a successful recovery of his brother’s body.  His team suffered through some pretty extreme weather, but always kept safety and their original goal in mind.  This should be a lesson to all of us, and hopefully we will continue to see efforts like Georg’s amazing recovery in the future.

As for now, Markus Kronthaler’s body will be returned to his homeland of Austria, where he will be laid to rest with the respect and dignity that he deserves.  On a side-note, George has done an amazing job of helping his family finally come to terms with this tragic incident and hopefully it will allow all of them to gain a little piece of mind.

A special thanks goes out to everyone who has been covering this expedition over the past few weeks.  The Adventure Blog and Everest is Ours has done a phenomenal job of covering this story.  The Alpinist, the leading authority in alpine climbing, currently has an article posted on their site detailing a bit more about this expedition–and a special thanks to Alan Arnette for passing on the word of  Markus’ successful recovery–Alan was on Broad Peak at the time of Marcus’ tragic death.  Thank-you all.