Marco Siffredi
YouTubeMarco Siffredi on Mount Everest.
Marco Siffredi was a mountaineer and avid snowboarder who lived for adventure. Unfortunately, his daredevil spirit would lead to one of the most unusual deaths.
It was a clear and sunny day in September 2002. Siffredi was standing on top of the world — 29,000 feet above sea level at the summit of Mount Everest. Most people could only dream of completing such a task, as almost 300 people have died while attempting to do the same thing. For Siffredi, reaching the top was only step one. His ultimate goal was to descend the gully on the north face, known as the Hornbein Couloir, by snowboard.
Siffredi had previously attempted this goal in May 2001. However, he came up just shy when unfavorable snow conditions on the couloir forced his snowboard onto a different route. Not settling for second best, Siffredi was now back again to conquer the deadly Hornbein Couloir.
The snow that greeted Siffredi and his Sherpa companions was thick and deep. Nevertheless, they plowed through chest-deep snow for over 12 hours to reach the summit.
It took much longer than anticipated, so the Sherpas urged Siffredi to wait until the next day to descend. Siffredi couldn’t be stopped. He set out down the treacherous Hornbein Couloir and quickly disappeared from the Sherpas’ sight.
YouTubeMarco Siffredi on his descent down Mount Everest.
Worried about the coming storm, the Sherpas hurried back down to base camp. They had descended roughly 4,000 feet in the opposite direction of Siffredi when something unusual caught their eye: a lone figure on the slopes below them.
The Sherpas maintain that they were completely alone on the mountain. All of them said that they saw the figure on a snowboard. However, when they came upon the place where they had seen the rider, there were no tracks. At that moment, they instinctually knew that Siffredi was dead and that the figure was just an apparition.
Siffredi never returned, and his body was never discovered.
Most experts believe that Siffredi fell victim to the summit’s notoriously deadly conditions. They concluded that the storm, thin air, and exhaustion from the climb proved to be too much for the daredevil. However, Siffredi’s sister believes he is alive today, living with yak herders in Tibet.
