The Eight-Thousanders
ShortStory 6,583 words Recommended by 4 award/anthology sources
"He spoke once, the words whispered by frozen lips on a face so frostbitten he looked like a porcelain doll. I found him below the summit as our expedition bottlenecked before the Hillary Step on our final ascent of Mount Everest. And above the bottleneck, more climbers. Dozens of people snaking to the top in their insulated red and orange and bright-color parkas and boots and backpacks. As if the mountain bled a trickle of rainbow-neon blood."
Content warnings 2
body-horrordeath
Quasar links out; the story lives on Asimov's, where the author gets the click.