Mt.Everest is the highest peak in the world. Nepal is also known as
Mt.Everest country. It lies in the eastern region of Nepal. Its height is 8848m
from the sea level. Its Nepali name is Sagarmatha. Most of the foreigners would
like to visit the Sagarmatha located area.
Everybody has heard of
Mount Everest and few dared to even climb it because it is the highest mountain.
It has a height of 8,848 meters. In the 19th century, the Great Trigonometric
Survey of India was the first that tried to measure the height of the Mount
Everest. The Royal Geographical Society was the one that give this name to the
peak, after one of its predecessor ruler.
If you want to climb the
Mount Everest there are several trails available, some of them are easy or some
are more difficult. Many climbers come every year and try to succeed. But this
is not easy, because many of them get ill because of the altitude. The cold
weather makes many victims, and the wind is not easy to bear. K2 I, the most
difficult trail and normal climbers need to be accompanied by a professional
mountain guide. This professional mountain guide costs pretty much. The people
from Nepal many most of their many from tourism, for example any climber need
to obtain a permit that may cost even $20 000.
Most of the untrained
climbers have problems in the “death zone”. This area is situated where the
mountain has more than 8000 meters height. If they are not careful how they are
equipped, the climbers may suffer frostbite on the extremities of their body,
because the temperatures can get very low. On this part of the trails snow and
ice is available, so the tourists may slip and fall. The winds also make many
problems to the climbers. Because of the atmospheric pressure the oxygen level
in the air is low and cause also problems to the tourists that managed to get
thru this zone. This is why it is better that climbers use supplementary
oxygen, with some special masks and bottled oxygen. In 1922 was the first time
that some climbers succeeded to climb the Mount Everest with the help of
bottled oxygen.
The flora and fauna is
poor on this mount, because of its high altitude. Some species of birds have been
seen here, as for example the Bar-headed Goose and Chough.
It is interesting to
know that the tibetansdon’t name this peak Mount Everest (named by the British
after George Everest), but instead they have their own name, they call it
Chomolangma. They consider this mount as being holy and maybe this is why for
so many years they didn’t want any strangers to climb it.
First successful ascent by Tenzing and Hillary
In 1953, a ninth British
expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing
pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair (Tom Bourdillon and
Charles Evans) came within 100 m (300 feet) of the summit on 26 May
1953, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. As planned, their
work in route finding and breaking trail and their caches of extra oxygen were
of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its
second and final assault on the summit with its second climbing pair, the New
Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali sherpa climber. They
reached the summit at 11:30 a.m. local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col
Route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole
expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his
foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take
photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before
descending.
News of the expedition's
success reached London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, 2
June. Returning to Kathmandu a few days later, Hunt (a Briton) and Hillary (a
New Zealander) discovered that they had been promptly knighted in the Order of
the British Empire, a KBE, for the ascent. Tenzing (a subject of the King of
Nepal) was granted the George Medal by the UK. Hunt was ultimately made a life
peer in Britain, while Hillary became a founding member of the Order of New
Zealand. Hillary and Tenzing are also nationally recognized in Nepal, where
annual ceremonies in schools and offices celebrate their accomplishment.
