Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth, measured by the height of its summit above sealevel, which is 8850m. The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Mount Everest rises a few millimeters each year due to geological forces
What’s in a name?
Known as Peak XV, Mt Everest was renamed in honour of the famous geodesist Sir George Everest. It is also known as Sagarmatha and Chomolungma in Nepal and Tibet.
Sir Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Hillary was the first person to reach the Mt Everest summit. He was born in 1919 and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand.
Mountainous New Zealand had inspired his interest in mountain climbing Edmund Hillary participated in Everest reconnaissance expeditions in 1951 and again in 1952.
The expedition reached the South Peak in May 1953, however all but two of the climbers who had made it that far were forced to turn back, suffering from exhaustion caused by the high altitude. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a native Nepalese climber who had participated in five previous Everest trips, were the only members of the party able to make the final assault on the summit.
At 11.30 on the morning of May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit, the highest spot on the mountain.
Reaching the Summit
Being the highest mountain in the world, Mt Everest attracts adventurers of all levels eager to complete a successful climb: from well experienced mountaineers to novice climbers willing to pay sizeable sums to professional guides.
The mountain, while not posing substantial difficulty on the standard climbing route, still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather and wind. By the end of the 2007 climbing season, there had been 3679 ascents to the summit.
Mt Everest has claimed 210 lives, including eight who perished during a 1996 storm high on the mountain.
Conditions are so difficult in some areas that the bodies of many unfortunate climbers have been left where they fell.
Picture Credit : Google
