Premium summer big reads: The quest to bring bodies down from Everest

A sherpa works to bring the body of Goutam Ghosh down Mount Everest in May 2017. Photo / Dawa Finjhok Sherpa, Seven Summit Treks, The New York Times

The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2019 from our premium international syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Times of London and Harvard Business Review.

This morning we look at the icy graveyard of Everest, life as a YouTube celebrity, Tyson Fury on depression, the evolving language for marijuana and beach hopping in Portugal.

Deliverance from 8200 metres

This year saw a record number of people attempt to scale the world's highest peak. The traffic jam of climbers resulted in the loss of many lives.

Hundreds have died trying to scale Everest over the years, and its icy graveyard holds many bodies.

In 2017, New York Times reporter John Branch wrote about the desperate and dangerous pursuit to find two Indian climbers who died trying to reach the summit.

The body of Goutam Ghosh is brought down Mount Everest. Photo / Dawa Finjhok Sherpa, Seven Summit Treks, The New York Times

What if being a YouTube celebrity is actually backbreaking work?

Emma Chamberlain dropped out of school and changed the world of online video. It hasn't been easy.

Jonah Engel Bromwich of The New York Times reports.

Emma Chamberlain's 8 million YouTube followers admire her humour and relatability. What they don't see, though, is how much work goes into her videos. Photo / Kaleb Marshall, The New York Times

Boxing on: Tyson Fury on the biggest fight of all

At the age of 20 Tyson Fury turned professional and won multiple titles. Then overnight everything fell apart. Fury heard voices, saw demons, ballooned to 178kg on takeaways and sweets, and unravelled into a drunken blur.

Boxing's troubled Gypsy King opens up to Decca Aitkenhead about the "void" of success and the mental health issues that have plagued him his whole life.

Tyson Fury's life story is almost as spectacular as his boxing. Geurin Blask / The Sunday Times Magazine / News Licensing

Marijuana, reefer, weed: How language keeps evolving for the Devil's lettuce

Kush. Bud. Herb.

Who knows what to call marijuana these days?

Born of the need for secrecy, slang has long dominated pot culture. But as entrepreneurs seek to capitalise on new laws legalising recreational and medical marijuana, they too are grappling with what to call it.

The New York Times looks at the shifting language of marijuana.

As long as people have smoked the plant, they've debated what to call it. Photo / 123RF

Portugal: Little to see but tiny villages and sleepy beaches

The country's Alentejo region has the last unspoiled stretch of Atlantic coast in all of southern Europe, with 65km of nearly untouched beaches.

The New York Times explores the region.

Sao Torpes beach is popular with surfers, in Sines. Photo / The New York Times