Hannelore Schmatz

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.[1][2]

Hannelore Schmatz
Hannelore Schmatz
Born(1940-02-16)16 February 1940
Regensburg, Germany
Died2 October 1979(1979-10-02) (aged 39)
Mount Everest, Nepal
Cause of deathCold, exhaustion
NationalityWest German
OccupationMountaineer
Spouse(s)Gerhard Schmatz

Biography

Schmatz was on an expedition via the South East Ridge route with her husband, Gerhard Schmatz, when she died at 8,300 metres (27,200 ft). Gerhard Schmatz was the expedition leader, then 50 years of age, and the oldest man to summit Everest. On the same expedition was the American Ray Genet, who also died while descending from the summit. Exhausted from the climb, they had stopped to bivouac at 28,000 feet (8,500 m) as the night approached, despite their Sherpa guides urging them not to stop. Ray Genet died later that night and both the Sherpa and Schmatz were distressed, but decided to continue their descent. Then at 27,200 feet (8,300 m) Schmatz sat down, said "Water, Water" to her Sherpa and died.[3] Sungdare Sherpa, one of the Sherpa guides, remained with her body, and as a result, lost most of his fingers and toes.[4]

Genet's body ultimately disappeared under the snow, but Schmatz's body remained where she died on the mountain.[5]

Body

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 above Camp IV.[6]

During a 1981 expedition Sungdare Sherpa was the guide again for a 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 the climb down they passed Schmatz's body and Kopcjynski was shocked thinking it was a tent and stated "We did not touch it. I could see she had on her watch still."

In 1984, police inspector Yogendra Bahadur Thapa and Sherpa Ang Dorje fell to their deaths while trying to recover Schmatz’s body on a Nepalese police expedition.[7][8]

Chris Bonington spotted Schmatz from a distance in 1985, and initially mistook her body for a tent until he got a closer look.[5]

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.[9] Næss' description is as follows:

"It's not far now. I can't escape the sinister guard. Approximately 100 meters 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.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Everest summiter Hannelore Schmatz". Everest News. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
  2. Banks, Nick (1980). "An Account of the 1979 Swabian Everest Expedition". The New Zealand Alpine Journal. 33: 102–104.
  3. "Dr. Gerhard Schmatz - Mt. Everest - höchster Berg der Erde". Schmatz-online.com. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  4. "The Alpine Club Spirit of Mountaineering Initiative" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  5. Simpson, Joe (1997). Dark shadows falling. The Mountaineers Books. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-0-89886-549-3. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  6. Gammelgaard, Lene. "Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
  7. Salkeld, Audrey (9 May 1996). "Report from Base Camp". PBS. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
  8. "2 Nepalese Mountaineers Die Looking for Body on Everest". The New York Times. 29 October 1984. Retrieved 8 April 2008.
  9. Gammelgaard, Lene (1999). Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy. Goodreads.com.
  10. Breashears, David (1 May 1999). High exposure: an enduring passion for Everest and unforgiving places. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-85361-1. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
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