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Mount Everest was
formed approximately sixty million years ago.
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The elevation of
Everest is 29,035 feet high. That is six feet higher than it was
in 1999.
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The name of the
mountain in Nepal is Sagarmatha. It means ‘Goddess of the sky.’
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The name in Tibet
is Chomolungma. This means ‘Mother goddess of the universe.’
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Once known as Peak
15, the mountain was named after the British surveyor-general of
India, Sir George Everest. The mountain was named after him
because he was the first to record the height and location of
Everest.
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Everest’s location
is twenty-seven degrees and fifty-nine feet north latitude and
eighty-six degrees and fifty-six feet longitude. Its peak
divides Nepal from Tibet.
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Sir Edmund Hilary
and Tenzing Norgay were the first to ascent Mount Everest on May
29, 1953.
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The first solo
ascent was completed by Reinhold Messner on August 20, 1980. He
travelled by way of the NE ridge to the North Face.
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The first ascent
accomplished in winter was L. Cichy and K. Wielicki on February
17, 1980.
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James Whittaker
was the first American to make the ascent. He did this on May 1,
1963.
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Geological forces
cause the mountain to raise a few millimeters each year.
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On May 16, 1975,
Everest saw its first ascent by a woman. This was accomplished
by Junko Tabei, from Japan. She went up via the South-Col.
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It was over a
decade later when the first American woman made an ascent. On
September 29, 1988, Stacey Allison from Portland, Oregon climbed
the South East Ridge.
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The first ascent
without oxygen (which is indeed a nearly impossible task,) was
on May 8, 1978. Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler went up by
way of the South East Ridge.
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Cathy O’Dowd was
the first woman to reach the top from both the north and south
sides. She did this on May 25, 1996.
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Babu Chhiri Sherpa
set the record for being the fastest to climb to the top from
the South side. The date was May 21, 2000 and the time was
sixteen hours and fifty-six minutes.
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Hans Kammerlander
set the record for being the fastest person to make the ascent
from the North side. It took him sixteen hours and forty-five
minutes from his base camp and it was on May 24, 1996.
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The youngest
person to climb Everest was Temba Tsheri. He was fifteen years
old and he made the climb on May 22, 2001.
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The oldest person
to ever climb was Sherman Bull. He was sixty-four years old when
he made the climb on May 25, 2001.
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Erik Weihenmeyer
climbed the mountain on May 25, 2001. He was the first legally
blind person to do so.
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Avalanches is the
number one reason for people dying while attempting the climb.
This is approximately a 2:1 ratio over falls.
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There are
approximately 120 corpses on Mount Everest.
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Nepal is the
country that has the most deaths on the mountain. It has
forty-six.
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The best year for
climbers on Everest was 1993. There were 129 attempts and 8
eight deaths. The worst year for climbers was 1996. 98 attempted
the climb and 15 died.
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The most dangerous
part of the mountain is Khumbu Ice Falls. It has seen 19 deaths.
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Davo Karnicar made
the first ski descent on October 7, 2000.
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The last year
without an ascent was 1977.
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Babu Chiri Sherpa
stayed on the summit for a total of 21 and a half hours after
reaching it. This is the longest anyone has ever stayed.
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China took a
410-member team up Everest in 1975. This is the largest amount
of people that have gone up at one time.
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Kushang Sherpa is
the only climber to have ever climbed all four sides of Everest.
He is now an instructor at the Himalayan Mountaineering
Institute.
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In 1988, Jean-Marc
Boivin from France descended from the top by paragliding. He did
so in an amazing eleven minutes.
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The first person
to hike from sea level with no oxygen was Tim Macartney-Snape
from Australia.
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The largest amount
of people that reached the peak on the same day was forty. It
was on May 10, 1993.
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Nawang Gombu-Nepal
was the first person to climb Everest twice. He did it once with
Whitaker in 1963 and he did it again in 1965. He is now an
instructor at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.
