On May 23, 1998, at roughly 8,500 meters on the North Face of Everest, a woman was still alive.

Cathy O’Dowd and Ian Woodall were pushing toward the summit when they found her lying in the snow. She was conscious. She could speak. Her name was Francys Arsentiev, and she had been exposed on the mountain through the night.

“Don’t leave me,” she said.

They stayed for over an hour. They gave her oxygen. They tried to move her. The altitude, the cold, and her condition made it physically impossible to carry her down. At some point Woodall and O’Dowd faced the choice that Everest forces on everyone who reaches that altitude: remain and die alongside her, or descend. They descended.

Francys Arsentiev died on the mountain the following day.

In the seasons that followed, climbers who passed her body gave her a name. She appeared peaceful, positioned on the slope as if resting, her face turned away from the wind. She looked, they said, like she was sleeping.

They called her Sleeping Beauty.

Who Was Francys Arsentiev?

Francys Distefano-Arsentiev was 40 years old in 1998. She was American, experienced, and driven by a specific ambition: to become the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. This was not a symbolic gesture. It was a deliberate technical commitment she and her husband, Sergei Arsentiev, had made together.

Climbing without supplemental oxygen above 8,000 meters is a different undertaking from the standard ascent. The body cannot acclimatize fully above that altitude. Every decision slows. Every step costs more. Most expeditions at high altitude use supplemental oxygen to maintain basic function in what climbers call the death zone. Francys and Sergei chose not to.

She had already summited Denali. She had the experience and the fitness. She knew exactly what she was attempting.

The Summit and What Came After

On May 22, 1998, Francys and Sergei reached the summit of Everest via the North Ridge. Without supplemental oxygen. She had done it — the first American woman to summit Everest without Os.

The descent is where most Everest deaths happen. Coming down from altitude in a depleted state, when the hardest climbing is technically behind you, is when the body finally runs out of reserves. For Francys and Sergei, who had pushed to the summit late and slow without supplemental oxygen, the descent would take everything they had left.

At some point on the way down, they became separated.

Sergei descended to retrieve their oxygen supply and went back up to find her. By the time the first expedition teams encountered Francys on the morning of May 23, she had been alone on the mountain through the night. Three Uzbek climbers passed her that morning and gave her their oxygen. It kept her alive through the night hours.

When Woodall and O’Dowd found her, she was still alive but could not move.

The Hour at 8,500 Meters

O’Dowd later described the encounter in detail. Francys was conscious enough to speak and to ask not to be left. She was suffering from severe hypothermia and almost certainly High-Altitude Cerebral Edema. Her body had been exposed overnight in sub-zero temperatures without the ability to move or generate warmth.

Woodall and O’Dowd spent more than an hour with her. They gave oxygen. They tried to lift her and move her down the slope. The incline, the conditions, and her state made it impossible for two climbers with limited oxygen reserves of their own. No mechanical evacuation exists at that altitude. No helicopter can operate reliably at 8,500 meters. The only exit was on foot, and she could not walk.

They descended without her.

Sergei Arsentiev also died on the mountain. He went back into the death zone to find his wife and fell from the Northeast Ridge. His body was recovered below the route.

How the Name Came About

The name Sleeping Beauty came from climbers who encountered her body in the years that followed her death. She was positioned on the open slope in a way that registered as peaceful from a distance. Her bright clothing stood out against the snow. Her expression, from what climbers described, was still.

There was nothing violent in how she appeared. She looked like someone who had simply stopped and rested.

The name was not officially given by anyone. It emerged the way names always emerge on Everest — passed between expedition members, used as a reference point for the terrain. Francys Arsentiev became a landmark on the North Face in a way she had not intended.

Ian Woodall Returns: The 2007 Expedition

Nine years after he descended without her, Ian Woodall organized a return to Everest with a specific purpose: to give Francys Arsentiev a more dignified resting place.

The 2007 expedition, called “Tao of Everest,” brought Woodall back to the North Face. He carried an American flag. He found her body where it had rested for nearly a decade, wrapped it, and placed it where it would not be directly in the path of every expedition making a summit bid. The team also respectfully moved other climbers who had died in the same section of the mountain.

O’Dowd has said that the decision made in 1998 stayed with both of them. Woodall’s return was not about resolving guilt. It was about finishing something that had remained unfinished.

Francys Arsentiev is no longer visible on the mountain.

The Ethics Question

The story of Francys Arsentiev became part of a debate that continues in mountaineering: when you are at extreme altitude and someone is dying next to you, what is your obligation?

Multiple climbers stopped for Francys over a two-day period. The Uzbek team gave her oxygen. Woodall and O’Dowd spent over an hour attempting to help. None of them were indifferent. The conditions made sustained rescue impossible without the certain death of anyone who stayed.

In 2006, a similar question emerged around the death of David Sharp. The pattern repeats: experienced climbers, genuine attempts to help, a point at which descent becomes the only survivable option.

Everest does not change the ethics. It changes what the options are.

Sleeping Beauty vs Green Boots: Two Different People

Sleeping Beauty and Green Boots are sometimes confused because both names refer to climbers whose bodies became landmarks on the North Face. They are not the same person.

Green Boots refers to a climber believed to be Tsewang Paljor, an Indian mountaineer who died during the 1996 ITBP expedition on the North Side of Everest. His body rested near a rock overhang known as Green Boots Cave and became a reference point for expedition teams for years.

Sleeping Beauty is Francys Arsentiev, who died in 1998 in a different location on the same face. The two deaths occurred two years apart, in different places, involving different people and different circumstances.

FAQs About Sleeping Beauty on Everest

Who is Sleeping Beauty on Everest?

Sleeping Beauty is the name given to Francys Arsentiev, an American climber who died on the North Face of Everest on May 24, 1998. She was the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. Her body was found in a peaceful position on the open slope, which is how the name came about among passing climbers.

Is Sleeping Beauty still on Everest?

No. In 2007, Ian Woodall led an expedition specifically to move Francys Arsentiev’s body to a more dignified location on the mountain. She is no longer visible from the standard North Ridge route.

What happened to Francys Arsentiev’s husband?

Sergei Arsentiev descended during the shared descent to retrieve oxygen and returned to search for Francys. He died on the mountain, falling from the Northeast Ridge. His body was found below the route.

Who moved Sleeping Beauty’s body from Everest?

Ian Woodall led the 2007 “Tao of Everest” expedition to recover Francys Arsentiev’s body. Woodall and Cathy O’Dowd had been among the climbers who encountered her alive in 1998 but were unable to save her. Woodall wrapped her body in an American flag and moved her to a more private location on the mountain.

Why did no one save Sleeping Beauty on Everest?

Multiple climbers tried. Three Uzbek climbers gave her oxygen overnight. Ian Woodall and Cathy O’Dowd spent more than an hour attempting to move her. Physical rescue of an incapacitated climber above 8,000 meters requires mechanical support that does not exist at that altitude. Her condition, combined with the terrain and the resources available, made extraction impossible without the rescuers also dying.

Is Sleeping Beauty the same person as Green Boots?

No. Sleeping Beauty is Francys Arsentiev, who died in 1998 on the North Face of Everest. Green Boots refers to a separate climber believed to be Tsewang Paljor, who died during a 1996 Indian expedition on the same side of the mountain. Both became reference points for climbers on the North Ridge but are different individuals who died two years apart in different locations.