backpack

Hannelore Schmatz was a German mountaineer born on February 16, 1940. On October 2, 1979 she became the first woman, and the first German citizen to die on the upper slopes of Mount Everest. Her husband, 50-year-old Gerhard Schmatz was the leader of the expedition, becoming the oldest person to have summited Mount Everest up to that time.

Gerhard Schmatz, Hannelore’s husband.

It is common on Everest for expedition teams to split up into smaller groups, having a few summit at a time as the rest remain at base camp. Hannelore summited that day with Swiss-American Ray Genet and a Sherpa, Sungdare.

Ray Genet

After a successful summit, Schmatz and Genet were exhausted and decided to stop for the evening to bivouac (stay in a temporary camp without cover, such as a sleeping bag, as opposed to returning to a base camp) at 27,200 feet in the Death Zone despite their Sherpa urging them against it. During the night, there was a severe snowstorm and early the following morning, Ray Genet died of hypothermia. His body was eventually buried by the snow. Shortly afterwards, Hannelore succumbed to exhaustion and the cold, dying only 330 feet (100 meters) away from base camp. Reportedly, her last words were “water, water”. Sungdare stayed with Hannelore, even after she was deceased, and ss a result, lost one finger and most of his toes to frostbite. In 1984, a Sherpa and a Nepalese police inspector attempted to recover the body of Hannelore Schmatz; Both fell to their death during the recovery effort. For years, Hannelore remained in plain view of the mountain’s Southern Route, still leaning against her backpack and known to most as only, “The German Woman”.

Hannelore Schmatz’s body on Mount Everest

Her eyes still open, hair blowing in the fierce winds, and well-preserved in the consistent subzero temperatures on the deadly mountain. Eventually, the strong winds pushed her body over the mountain. While her eternal resting place remains a mystery, she has finally received some form of a burial.
The following photos are of Hannelore Schmatz’s fatal expedition to Mount Everest from the private collection of Gerhard Schmatz, Hannelore’s widower.

Photos courtesy Gerhard Schmatz. Read his account of Hannelore Schmatz’s fatal expedition and view more photos from this and other expeditions on his website.

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The body of “Green Boots” inside “Green Boots’ Cave” in the Death Zone of Mount Everest. One of the few photos in which his boots actually appear to be green.

The Everest Disaster of 1996 refers to a blizzard that occurred on May 10th & 11th which led to the loss of eight lives. The blizzard caused the deadliest day and deadliest year on Mount Everest until the 2014 Mt. Everest avalanche which resulted in 16 casualties. The Nepal Earthquake which occured in April 2015 and caused an avalanche on the mountain that killed 19 people is now holds the record for the deadliest day in the mountain’s history. On May 10, 1996 a team of six Indian climbers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police expedition were attempting to summit when the blizzard began. Just short of the peak, three of the six chose to continue with the summit while the others returned to base camp. Climbers Subedar Tsewang Samanla, Lance Naik (Lance Corporal) Dorje Morup and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor contacted the three team members who had returned to base camp via radio to notify them they had reaced the summit and would be descending shortly. The three men left prayer flags, Khatas (traditional Tibetan Buddhist ceremonial scarfs) and placed pitons (metal spikes used in mountain climbing as anchor points to prevent a fall and aid in climbing) atop the mountain. Samanla, who was the leader of the expedition instructed Dorje Morup and Tsewang Paljor to begin descent as he remained behind to conduct a religious ceremony from the mountains peak.

Tsewang Samanla

Tsewang Paljor

What happened next remains a mystery; All that is certain is that the three men died in the 1996 Everest Disaster. The team did not make any additional radio contact with their team members at base camp and never returned. Evidence suggests they may have never even made it to the actual summit, appearing to have stopped 430 feet (150 meters) short due to confusion from poor visibility. A team of Japanese climbers their summit may have seen one or more of the Indian climbers but failed to assist them because they were unaware the three climbers had been reported missing. The Japanese team claimed during their descent they saw a person on a fixed rope and a second unidentifiable object which may have also been a human. One team member from the Japanese expedition even greeted another unitentified climber, possibly a missing member of the Indian expedition. Although the Japanese team aided the unitentified climber in transitioning to their next set of ropes, the climber did not otherwise seem to be in need of assistance. Eventually, a body was discovered under the overhang of a boulder along the Northeast Ridge Route at 27,890 feet (8500 meters), near Camp 6. The corpse was found lying next beside a rucksack with clothing intact but no gloves on.

Oxygen bottles lying next to Green Boot’s body.

Green boots worn by the deceased climber led people to refer to him simly as “Green Boots” and the limestone alcove he was discovered in as “Green Boots Cave”.

Green Boot’s Kolflach boots appear to be more yellow than green in many photographs. This is most likely due to lighting. Over time, the boots may have faded as well.

People have long believed the body in the small cave was that of Tsewang Paljor who had been wearing a pair of green Koflach boots when he was last seen alive.

An article published in the Himalayan Journal in 1997 put forth the theory that the body is actually Dorje Morup and Paljor’s body was never discovered. According to Morup’s team he “refused to put on gloves over his frost-bitten hands” and during the ascent, before the group spilt up, he was already struggling and “was finding difficulty in uncoiling his safety carabiner at anchor points”.
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