The body of British mountaineer Peter Boardman was discovered nearly a decade after he vanished on Mount Everest, sitting upright and leaning against a rock, gazing out over the Himalayas. Boardman and his climbing partner Joe Tasker disappeared in May 1982 while attempting Everest's North-East Ridge from the Tibetan side, then considered the mountain's last great unclimbed line.
The pair were last seen late on May 17 at around 27,000 feet, deep inside Everest's 'death zone', where oxygen levels are so low the human body begins to shut down. They had been climbing for more than 14 hours when radio contact was lost. Expedition leader Sir Chris Bonington watched them disappear behind the Second Pinnacle at dusk.
Search efforts were limited by exhaustion and worsening conditions. Nearly a decade later, in 1992, a joint Japanese-Kazakh expedition found Boardman's body beyond the Second Pinnacle at around 8,200 metres. Photographs confirmed his identity. He was sitting, leaning against a rock, facing outward. He had not fallen or been buried by snow; it is believed he simply ran out of strength.
Tasker's body has never been recovered, though some equipment was found higher along the ridge. Boardman was 31, Tasker 33. Both were among Britain's most gifted climbers, known for bold, lightweight ascents. Bonington later said: 'Their loss was enormous to the climbing world.'
