Hannelore Schmatz, The Skeleton Atop Mount Everest

Hannelore Schmatz, The Skeleton Atop Mount Everest

Hannelore Schmatz was the fourth woman in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Tragically, she was also the first woman to die on it.

The German mountaineer and her husband embarked on their journey in 1979 with high hopes. But during the descent after reaching the summit, Schmatz grew weak from the trek and succumbed to exhaustion and the cold.

For years after Schmatz died, her body lay frozen on the mountainside just as she had fallen — sitting down against her backpack, her hair blowing in the wind, and her eyes wide open. Other climbers who passed her corpse on the trail would say that they could feel her eyes follow them as they walked by.

Hannelore Schmatz (16 February 1940 – 2 October 1979) was a German mountaineer who was the fourth woman to summit Mount Everest. She collapsed and died as she was returning from summiting Everest via the southern route; Schmatz was the first woman and first German citizen to die on the upper slopes of Everest

For years, Schmatz's remains could be seen by anyone attempting to summit Everest by the southern route. Her body was frozen in a sitting position, leaning against her backpack with eyes open and hair blowing in the wind, about 100 metres (330 ft) above Camp IV.

During a 1981 expedition Sungdare Sherpa was the guide again for a new group of climbers. He had refused at first due to losing his fingers and toes during the 1979 expedition, but was paid extra by climber Chris Kopcjynski. During this climb down as they passed Schmatz's body, Kopcjynski was shocked, thinking it was a tent and stated "We did not touch it. I could see she still had her watch on."

In 1984, police inspector Yogendra Bahadur Thapa, 36, and his guide, Ang Dorjee, 35, fell to their death while trying to recover Schmatz's body on a Nepalese police expedition.

British mountaineer Chris Bonington spotted Schmatz from a distance in 1985, and initially mistook her body for a tent until he got a closer look.

Lene Gammelgaard, the first Scandinavian woman to reach the peak of Everest, quotes the Norwegian mountaineer and expedition leader Arne Næss Jr. describing his encounter with Schmatz's remains, in her book Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy (1999), which recounts her own 1996 expedition. Næss' description is as follows:

"It's not far now. I can't escape the sinister guard. Approximately 100 meters (300') above Camp IV she sits leaning against her pack, as if taking a short break.

A woman with her eyes wide open and her hair waving in each gust of wind. It's the corpse of Hannelore Schmatz, the wife of the leader of a 1979 German expedition. She summited, but died descending. Yet it feels as if she follows me with her eyes as I pass by. Her presence reminds me that we are here on the conditions of the mountain."

The wind eventually blew Schmatz's remains over the edge and down Kangshung Face.

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