Mount Everest

Mount Everest

The Mount Everest is the largest and highest mountain in the world. Mount Everest is in the Himalayas. It is about Template:M to ft high.

Its peak is on the border between Nepal and Tibet. It is above the Death Zone where the air is too thin for a human being, so usually, or extra, oxygen is used when climbing. The Death Zone refers to the parts of Mount Everest that are above 25,000 ft above sea level.

Two other mountains also can be named as "highest" mountains - the volcano Mauna Kea on Hawaii island is the highest mountain counted from the base underwater to the summit - more than 11 kilometres, and the summit of the Chimborazo is the fixed point on Earth which has the utmost distance from the center - because of the modified ball shape of the planet Earth which is "thicker" around the Equator than measured around the poles.

History

A survey of India in 1856 recorded Everest. It was called Peak XV. This first published height was Template:M to ft. Everest was given its official English name in 1865 by the Royal Geographical Society.

On June 8th, 1924, George Leigh Mallory and climbing partner Andrew Irvine made an attempt on the summit of Mount Everest. They disappeared into the fog and were never seen again until Mallory's body was found by Conrad Anker in 1999. To this day, no one is sure whether or not Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit before dying, 29 years before the next climbers would reach the summit.

Mount Everest was climbed first in May 1953 by the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and the New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary after 31 years of British trials to get a man on top - the exploration of the Everest region started 1921 and first realistic try to go on top was 1922.

The Sherpas

The Sherpas are the local people who live at the foot of Mount Everest and not the guiders who carry the climbers' luggage. For the Sherpas Mount Everest is a sacred mountain and always before they climb Mount Everest they do a sacrifical offering. [1]