Mount Everest is situated at the border of Tibet, India Nepal. It is 8.9 km high from sea level. There are different opinions among the surveyors about the height of Mount Everest. In the 1800 a British surveyor team informed that the height is 29,002 feet (8840 meters). In 1954 an Indian surveyor team found it 29,028 feet (8848 meters) high. The Mount Everest is named after British surveyor general Sir George Everest (1760-1866). The people of Tibet call it ‘Chomolungma’ and Nepalese call it ‘Sagar Matha’.
Early Attempts
In the early years (1921-1938), little was known about the physiological effects of extreme height, and mountaineers over the world wondered if they could possibly climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. It was a leap in to the world of the unknown, traveling to far off lands and launching huge expeditions up the slopes of the Himalayas to altitudes no human had ever experienced. Eric Shipton, considered the best mountaineer of his day and an experienced person of the expeditions to Everest in the 1930s, predicted that Everest would eventually be climbed, although he was quick to qualify his prediction with commentary on the physiological limitations of high altitude mountaineering:” It would seem almost as though there were a cordon drawn round the upper part of these great peaks beyond which no man may go. The truth, of course, lies in the fact that, at altitudes of 25,000 feet and beyond, the effects of low atmospheric pressure upon the human body are so severe that mountaineering is impossible and the consequences even of a mild storm may be deadly, that nothing but the most perfect conditions of weather and snow offer the slightest chance of success, and that on the last lap of the climb no party is in a position to choose its day.”
Around the turn of twentieth century, the initial problem of climbing Everest was not one of height or difficulty, but of merely gaining access to the mountain. Neither Tibet, nor Nepal, across whose borders Everest straddles, welcomed outsiders. Only through top level diplomacy and a personal appeal to the Dalai Lama could the British Reconnaissance party visit Tibet in 1921. Their goal to ascertain if a route to the summit of Mount Everest could be found.
No one knew if the top of Everest could be reached until May 29, 1953 when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary plodded their way to the summit from their high camp at 28,000 feet. This was the expedition’s camp-9, 1,000 feet from the summit and situated some 2,000 feet higher than today’s highest camp for climbers on the same route. Today climbers set up only 4 camps on the mountain, because Base Camp is positioned much higher than it was in the early days.
When Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest in 1953 with New Zealander Edmund Hillary, he had no idea how his life would change. From that moment on, Tenzing became an ambassador for his people, the high altitude Shepras of Darjeling and the Khumbu. Although he spoke 7 languages, Tenzing never learned how to write; however he wrote several books by dictation, and they provide a timeless account of an era when the high Himalayan frontiers were still unexplored. On the morning of their summit day, Tenzing and Hillary left their camp and proceeded up the southeast point toward the summit. Tenzing later wrote : “On the top of the rock cliff we rested again. Certainly, after climbing up the gap we were both a bit breathless, but after some slow pulls at the oxygen I was feeling fine. I looked up; the top was very close now; and my heart thumped with excitement and joy. Then we were on our way again climbing towards the peak. There were still the cornices on our right and the cliff on our left, but the ridge was now less steep. It was only a row of snowy humps, one beyond the other, one higher than the other. But we were still afraid of the cornices and, instead of following the ridge all the way. We cut over to the left, where there was now a long snow slope above the cliff. About a hundred feet below the top we came to the highest bare rocks. There was enough, almost level space here for two tents, and I wondered if men would ever camp in this place, so near the summit of the earth. I picked up two small stones and put them in my pocket to bring back to the world below.”
Some Records:
In 2001 a 15 year-old Nepalese boy Timba Tisheri climbed Everest as the youngest climber in history. Before him 16 years old Sambhu Tegsa of Nepal was the youngest. There were another two records made in the same year. A French couple named Bartrand and Klair climbed Everest by parachute, in the same year a blind man of Germany named Eric Vilsare did it. Another records made in 2004 is to climb Everest within the shortest time by a Nepalese Sherpa. He climb Everest in 10 hours and 10 minutes which is 2 hours less than the earlier records. He took only fruit juice as food and he climbed Everest for the second time in that week. He climbed as if he was running. In that mission he was a guide of a Swiss.
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