WORLD HISTORY AND FACTS

Snowboarder's disappearance shrouds Mount Everest This is the last photo ever taken of Marco Siffredi — just before he died attempting to snowboard down Mount Everest.  On September 8, 2002, the French daredevil reached the 29,000-foot summit of Earth's highest point. Though critically exhausted from the climb and the high altitude, Siffredi stood with his board perched over the precipice and decided to forge ahead with his plan. He strapped on a fresh oxygen tank, bid his Sherpa adieu, and began his descent — never to be seen again.  Marco Siffredi (22 May 1979 – 8 September 2002) was a French snowboarder and mountaineer who hailed from a climbing family; his father was a mountain guide, and his older brother Pierre had died in an avalanche in their hometown of Chamonix, France.  Siffredi was the first to descend Mount Everest on a snowboard, completing this feat in 2001 via the Norton Couloir. In 2002, he disappeared after making his second Everest summit, while attemp...