Francys Arsentiev at the Mt. Everest summit in her final portrait
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Francys Arsentiev at the Mt. Everest summit in her final portrait Francys Arsentiev at the Mt. Everest summit in her final portrait. She was the first woman from the United States to reach the summit of Mount Everest without the aid of bottled oxygen, on May 22, 1998. She then died during the descent. Francys was climbing with her husband Sergei in 1998 and the two became separated. With no way to communicate they never reunited, and met their ends alone on different parts of the mountain. She died of exposure and suspected cerebral edema, while he appears to have died from a fall. Ian Woodall initiated and led an expedition in 2007, "The Tao of Everest", with the purpose of returning to the mountain to bury the bodies of Francys Arsentiev and an unidentified climber ("Green Boots"), both of whom were plainly visible from the nearby climbing route. Francys Arsentiev's body was visible to climbers for nine years, from her death, May 24, 1998, to May 23, 2007. On ...