Standing at the top of the world at the summit of Mount Everest, Jim Morrison was surrounded by some of the highest mountains on Earth. Below him, the deep gully of the Hornbein Couloir split the imposing and staggeringly steep North Face in two.
But he barely had time to take in the view. At 29,032 feet, Morrison was in the area known as the “death zone” — so named because there is so little oxygen that the human body cannot sustain itself unaided for long periods, not to mention the risk from avalanches and rockfalls.
