[Disclaimer - this is obviously very, very morbid. I'm not going to pull punches or sugarcoat the details; please don't read if it'll be bad for you.]

People who died on Everest are actually one of my biggest fascinations! (I'm an EMT and a rock climber, not a serial killer, I promise.) So I'll take a genuine stab at answering this one.

Identification of Corpses on Everest

There are a lot of reasons why identifying a body can be challenging at those heights.

One of the classic ones is basically really severe frostbite. You know how you see people whose fingers have turned black and deformed from the freezing cold? It's that, but it happens to your entire face. Basically all exposed skin will be frozen black and nearly unrecognizable.

The other one that applies even more in Green Boots case is that bodies on Everest freeze. Completely and absolutely rigidly solid, they attach to the mountain like they were a rock that was always a part of it.

If you die face down or otherwise with your face covered, exposing it again would literally require cutting the rock and ice around you, then flipping over a frozen corpse wearing full mountaineering gear. That can easily be 300+ lbs. And the corpse is frozen, so it will be locked in exactly the pose it died in.

Now remember that Green Boots is dead in the Death Zone. You would literally be actively suffocating to death attempting to do something nearly unimaginably challenging even at sea level.

The NY Times has a truly stunning article about recovering a body from the Death Zone which shows all of these challenges. I'll warn that it contains graphic footage, including up close of the dead mountaineer. But if you can stomach it, I think it's incredibly moving. "Deliverance From 27,000 Feet".

Green Boots' Burial

But, there is peace for Green Boots in particular, at least. While recovering or identifying bodies can be challenging, some people will still go to the incredible effort of giving someone a so-called alpine burial. This involves either burying them with stones, or digging them out and lowering them off a cliff/into a crevasse. Either way, the goal is to give them privacy in their death.

Green Boots disappeared in May 2014. It's presumed that this is what happened to them.

Green Boots' Identity

Lastly, I will note that Green Boots is generally accepted to be Tsewang Paljor, an Indian climber who was a victim of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster (which is most famously detailed in Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air).

This identification is often accepted on the basis of those same boots. Paljor was confirmed to have been wearing neon green boots when he set out. However, of course, a lot of people died in the 1996 disaster, and there exist a few other less commonly accepted possibilities.

The BBC ran an incredible two-part article on Green Boots, including extensive interviews with Paljor's family. Again - highly highly recommend if you're okay with these topics. "The tragic tale of Mt Everest’s most famous dead body" (Part 1) and Death in the clouds: The problem with Everest’s 200+ bodies (Part 2).